crime
New trial surrounding the Trier shooting spree weighs on those affected
Petra Lieser sits with a photo
© Birgit Reichert/dpa
The deadly shooting spree in Trier was more than three years ago. Now the trial against the perpetrator is being partially reopened. This reopens wounds for relatives and those affected.
Five people died in the gunman’s crime, including a nine-week-old baby. There were also dozens of injured and traumatized people. In October 2021, a man who was seriously injured in the crime also died. The fact that the defendant was the perpetrator is undisputed in the new trial. He drove his off-road vehicle at high speed through the busy shopping street in Trier and deliberately hit passers-by. Something else is being renegotiated.
Failure of the Court
The question of culpability is the focus of the new process. After the defendant appealed, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) largely overturned the judgment of August 2022 due to legal errors. The regional court made mistakes: the man was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Therefore, the court generally considered him to be of reduced culpability. However, the BGH ruled that the court had not specifically examined and justified the assumption in relation to the crime.
In addition, the court failed to examine the effects of the defendant’s alcohol consumption in combination with his illness on his culpability, said Trier criminal law professor Mohamad El-Ghazi. In his opinion, the question of culpability is “now fundamentally open.”
Victims are worried about being acquitted
Even if the trial “shakes everything up again”: She will be in the courtroom for all ten days of the trial until May 2nd, said Lieser, who runs a daycare center in Trier. “I really hope that this will be over in ten days. And that the perpetrator will remain locked up.” She couldn’t live with a possible acquittal due to incompetence. Even if he then ends up in a psychiatric hospital. Then there is always the fear that one day he will be released again, said the 55-year-old.
The perpetrator was initially sentenced to life in prison for multiple murders and multiple attempted murders. The court also noted the particular gravity of the guilt and ordered the man to be placed in a closed psychiatric hospital.
Will the defendant speak?
Around 60 witnesses have been called to the new trial by the beginning of May. These are people who had contact with the defendant before or after the crime. The reading of the indictment, the reading of the verdict, insofar as it is legally binding, and the reading of the BGH decision are planned for the first day of the trial. It will then be seen whether the defendant will testify on the matter. He was silent in the first trial.
Whether the defendant will say something or not – for Petra Lieser it makes no difference. “There is no explanation for this,” she said. Since the crime, a normal life has no longer been possible for her. “We miss Katja so much.” In the garden, a white candle continues to burn in the lantern day and night for her daughter. “She was the most fun-loving person I knew. And she wanted to be a victim advocate.”