Two Serbs were tried on Wednesday at the Vienna Regional Court because of several brutal home invasions – the violent entry into apartments and robbing of the residents – as well as a multitude of other burglaries. They are said to have belonged to a gang of Serbian origin specializing in these crimes. They are charged by a 21-year-old compatriot who stabbed a jeweler on Landstrasser Hauptstrasse on October 14, 2020.
The 21-year-old was sentenced to 19 years in prison in Vienna last December for the robbery and murder of the jeweler and four other brutal robberies. After his arrest, the young man made a kind of “life confession” and told the police that the two accused were accomplices.
The two were not involved in the robbery and murder convicted at first instance. But one of the two – a 34-year-old – is said to have broken into an apartment together with the 21-year-old on February 28, 2020 and hit the owner on the head with an iron bar and took gold coins worth 15,000 euros and cash from the seriously injured man . The second accused – a 61-year-old man – is said to have come up with the tip for a brutal attack on a couple who were startled from their sleep on April 28, 2020 at 3 a.m. The 34-year-old and the 21-year-old are said to have climbed onto scaffolding, then smashed a window in the apartment and violently taken cash, jewelry and watches worth 310,000 euros from the couple. The 61-year-old is said to have performed watchdog services in this coup and also persuaded the 21-year-old to attack an opera singer in his apartment on October 14, 2020.
The 61-year-old pleaded not guilty to all allegations. “He’s a cripple,” said his defense attorney Leonhard Kregcjk after the man had laboriously dragged himself step by step into the courtroom on crutches. His client was seriously injured in a gas explosion in 1989: “Since then he has been physically restricted.” The idea that the 61-year-old could have been a lookout for robberies or participated in some of the 23 accused burglaries in basements, workshops and offices by climbing through broken windows or handling a flex, as incriminated, is absurd. “He can’t even keep track of parts of the court file because he also injured his hands in the explosion,” Kregcjk said.
The younger defendant has confessed to most of the burglaries attributed to him, but has denied any involvement in the robberies. “He’s a thief, a burglar. But not a robber,” his defense attorney Alexander Philipp stated.