Also suspicious in the Maddie case
Prosecutors are demanding a total of 15 years for Christian B.
The final lectures have begun in the trial against Christian B. (left). photo
© Moritz Frankenberg/dpa-Pool/dpa
On the 36th day of the trial against Christian B. the taking of evidence will be closed. The public prosecutor’s office is demanding a long prison sentence for the defendant and is taking a tough approach against the court.
In a plea that lasted more than three hours, Lindemann had previously explained why she considered the defendant guilty of two counts of rape and two cases of sexual abuse. In her final speech, she harshly criticized the criminal chamber of the regional court in several places. Lindemann spoke of a biased chamber, which she sometimes had the impression of not wanting to make incriminating findings.
Maddie complex is not officially part of the trial
At the start of the trial, the 47-year-old German was accused of three rapes and two cases of sexual abuse of children, which he is said to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. The trial is attracting greater international attention because the defendant in the case of missing three-year-old Madeleine “Maddie” McCann is suspected of murder. However, the Maddie complex is not officially the subject of the current proceedings. Overall, the presumption of innocence applies.
Even before the trial, the chamber had lost time with a long jurisdictional dispute and made it clear that it did not want the proceedings, Lindemann said. The Higher Regional Court (OLG) initially ordered the proceedings to be conducted. During the trial, she found it unique how much mistrust was shown towards the investigating authorities. “One sometimes had the impression that officials were sitting in the dock,” said Lindemann.
Two alleged victims have not been identified – possible videos of the crimes have been lost
With regard to the five individual allegations, the senior public prosecutor said: “You have to make the effort to look at the overall evidence that incriminates the defendant.”
She believes Christian B. is guilty of raping a 70 to 80 year old woman in her holiday apartment and filming it. Lindemann attested to a witness who said he had seen the crime on video and recognized the defendant as having a “comprehensible description”. But: The victim was never identified and the whereabouts of the video are unclear.
The same applies to the second alleged rape, for which another witness was important from the prosecutor’s point of view. The public prosecutor’s office was “shocked” by the chamber’s questioning of this witness. In the end he was so exhausted that he only suspected that a teenager had been raped in court. Of course, that wasn’t enough and would have to lead to an acquittal of this accusation, Lindemann found.
Alleged victim from Ireland testified in Braunschweig for several days
The victim from Ireland was interviewed in Braunschweig over several days about the third alleged rape. About 20 years after the crime, she showed an “impressive memory” and named several characteristics that apply to the defendant, said the senior public prosecutor. She also referred to the approach with sadistic traits, which the defendant had described similarly in his own texts.
The public prosecutor finds Christian B. guilty in the accused cases of sexual abuse of children. A German woman who was ten years old at the time of the alleged crime in 2004 appeared in Braunschweig as a witness with a high “sense of responsibility” and claims to have “recognized 99 percent of the defendant” in pictures that were later published.
Prosecutors believe the defendant is guilty of two cases of abuse
In the second case, the public prosecutor’s office is convinced that the defendant masturbated in front of a girl in 2017. Christian B. was arrested on that day. The then eleven-year-old was questioned via video link in Portugal for the trial.
In summary, the senior public prosecutor demanded a total prison sentence of 13 years for the two alleged rapes and one alleged sexual abuse of a child. The remaining last case of abuse cannot be embedded there for formal legal reasons, she said. Therefore, Lindemann is requesting two more years in prison.
The verdict could come on Tuesday
Two representatives of the co-prosecution essentially joined the public prosecutor’s office. The defense’s final presentation is expected next Monday (October 7th), and the verdict could then come as early as Tuesday (October 8th).