Verdict
Murder after mask dispute: life for right-wing extremists
A judicial officer removes the handcuffs from the accused (l) in front of the district court. His lawyer, Axel Kuester, sits in the foreground. photo
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
The act at a gas station in Idar-Oberstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, had caused horror across the country. After a mask dispute, a customer shot a young gas station employee there. Now the perpetrator has to go to prison for a very long time.
In the trial of the fatal shot at a gas station employee in the dispute over the corona mask requirement, the accused was sentenced to life imprisonment. In its judgment on Tuesday, the district court in Bad Kreuznach classified the act as murder and thus followed the request of the public prosecutor.
Contrary to what was demanded by the public prosecutor’s office and the private prosecutor, the jury did not find any particular degree of guilt. In this case, a release of the now 50-year-old after 15 years in prison would have been legally possible, but practically impossible.
The defense had rejected the charge of murder. The German’s two lawyers had pleaded for manslaughter with significantly reduced criminal responsibility of the accused, who, according to an expert, had around two per thousand alcohol in his blood at the time of the shot. The crime on September 18, 2021 at a gas station in Idar-Oberstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, caused horror across the country.
According to the court, the 50-year-old’s radical right-wing attitude and his hostility to the state were the main motives for the crime. He saw the cashier as a representative for the state and the Corona policy, which he saw as completely wrong. When the young man insisted on complying with the mask requirement, the 50-year-old decided to “make an example of him”.
Chief Public Prosecutor Nicole Frohn was satisfied with the verdict. It is important that the court judged the crime to be murder and not manslaughter. The determination of a particular degree of guilt is a balancing issue in which the court came to a different conclusion from the prosecution. It is being examined whether an appeal should be lodged against the verdict.
Is there a revision?
Defense attorney Alexander Klein said his client was relieved that no particular severity of guilt had been determined and that the verdict gave him a perspective after 15 years. However, the mental state and the special circumstances of the crime would not be properly appreciated. Therefore, the defense will also check whether they want to apply for a revision.
The question of who was the perpetrator did not play a major role in the six-month trial, as it was undisputed from the start. The accused had confessed that out of anger that the young cashier didn’t want to sell him beer without a corona mask, he got a gun at home and pulled the trigger when he visited the gas station again. There was also video footage of the crime.
He didn’t have a gun license for the revolver. That’s why he was convicted of illegal gun possession. The mother of the 20-year-old victim took part in the process as a joint plaintiff.