crime
“Last word” for Thomas Drach – possibly verdict
The Reemtsma kidnapper Thomas Drach (l) has to answer for several robberies on money transporters. Now the process is coming to an end. photo
© Thomas Banneyer/dpa
After two years, the trial against Germany’s most famous criminal is coming to an end. After the “final word,” the verdict against Thomas Drach could come on the same day.
The trial against Germany’s most famous criminal has been running under high security for almost two years. The court building is cordoned off on every day of the hearing. Drach is usually flown in by helicopter from the Cologne correctional facility.
Attempted murder and spectacular robberies
According to the indictment, the German is said to have committed four spectacular robberies on cash-in-transit vehicles in Cologne, Frankfurt am Main and Limburg, Hesse, in 2018 and 2019. The 63-year-old is also charged with attempted murder: in two of the crimes he is said to have shot at money messengers, and the two men suffered serious injuries. Drach denies all allegations.
The public prosecutor’s office has demanded a prison sentence of 15 years and subsequent preventive detention for Drach. This would mean that after serving his sentence he would be transferred to the penal system and continue to sit behind bars there. In her plea, the public prosecutor saw it as “proven beyond a doubt” that Drach committed three of the accused robberies and stole almost 142,000 euros. Only the crime in Limburg cannot be proven.
The defense lawyers requested an acquittal for their client. Drach was not recognized at any of the crime scenes or identified by witnesses.
In 1996, Drach kidnapped the heir to the Hamburg Reemtsma tobacco dynasty, Jan Philipp Reemtsma, and released him after 33 days – for a ransom of 15 million German marks and 12.5 million Swiss francs. He was sentenced to fourteen and a half years in prison for the crime.