Personal Injury Proceedings
Fine in the millions – Jérôme Boateng appeals after the second conviction
Jérôme Boateng on the last day of the trial
© Christof Stache / AFP
Jérôme Boateng stood before the judge twice and was found guilty of assault twice. But the soccer world champion does not want to accept the verdict and appeals.
Jérôme Boateng does not want to accept his second conviction for assault either. His defense appealed against the verdict, as the Munich I district court said on Wednesday at the request of the German Press Agency. According to a spokeswoman for the prosecution, the public prosecutor’s office did the same shortly afterwards. The Bavarian Higher Regional Court must now decide whether there may have been legal errors in the judgment against Boateng.
The district court in Munich I found the 2014 soccer world champion guilty of attacks on his ex-girlfriend during a vacation in the Caribbean in 2018. It imposed a fine of 120 daily rates of 10,000 euros each – a total of 1.2 million euros. This would mean that Boateng – unlike the first instance judgment – would have a criminal record.
Last year, the district court imposed a higher fine overall, but the number of daily rates was only half as high – specifically: 60 daily rates of 30,000 euros each – a total of 1.8 million euros. If more than 90 daily rates are convicted, they are considered to have had a criminal record.
“For us, the facts are more than proven,” judge Andreas Forstner said in the verdict. Boateng’s defenders, on the other hand, had requested an acquittal for the 34-year-old football professional. They assumed that his ex-girlfriend had invented and “instrumentalized” the allegations “in the fight for the children” and complained that their client had been prejudiced. During the course of the proceedings, they also filed a motion for bias against Judge Forstner. The public prosecutor had demanded a suspended sentence of one and a half years and an additional fine of 1.5 million euros.