In a purely circumstantial trial, the lubeck district court sentenced a 43-year-old man to twelve years in prison for kidnapping and raping a female student.
The court found the turk guilty of attempted murder, rape and deprivation of liberty. The accused had kept silent about the accusations until the very end.
According to the court, the man had dragged the 21-year-old medical student into his van after a party in october 2019 and raped her. Then he loved her bound and gagged on a lonely field path near monkhagen in the district of stormarn back.
"He wanted his victim not to be found. That’s why he left her helpless in such a remote place," said the chairman of the jury chamber, christian singelmann, in the verdict. "If a witness had not found the young woman by chance, she would have died in all probability," said the judge.
A motorist had discovered the 21-year-old when he stopped to urinate on the dirt road. He had testified that the woman had been tied up so tightly that she had hardly been able to move. "Horses are not as tightly tied as they are," he had testified in the trial.
With the sentence, the court essentially followed the prosecution’s application. However, she had demanded life imprisonment for attempted murder. "With the verdict, however, I am satisfied overall. The chamber essentially followed our argumentation, only in the legal consequences it came to a different result," said prosecutor niels-broder greve.
Hans-jurgen forster, representing the plaintiffs, was also satisfied with the verdict. "It will help my client cope with this extreme intrusion into her life," he said. The 21-year-old testified during the trial that she had returned to university just a few days after being kidnapped and raped, and that she was now enjoying her life again.
A 26-year-old student, however, who is alleged to have been abducted by the 43-year-old as early as september 2019, was different. She had testified that she was still suffering from the crime and had moved out of her former apartment because she could no longer stand it there. "The court is convinced that the defendant took her to his gazebo after a party," singelmann said. She was able to free herself, but the defendant chased her to her apartment, where her boyfriend finally drove him away, the judge said.
The defendant has remained silent on all the charges. There was no sign of a reaction from the 43-year-old to friday’s ruling either. "My client was expecting a conviction," said his defense attorney kerstin raber. She had asked for a conviction for deprivation of liberty and bodily harm, but did not ask for a specific punishment.
In response to the ruling, it announced an appeal. "From my point of view, there is no proof of the rape of the minor by my client," raber said. "This accusation is based exclusively on the testimony of the victim, which is not necessarily based on concrete experience," said raber.