Ahmed B. says he was a native of Syria, but at home in the world. He has traveled to many countries and is particularly familiar with Swedish curtains. Whether in Spain or Paris, the man knows the prisons on an international level. And now Stadelheim too. Because the court did not want to buy from him in the second instance that he had entered a jewelry store on Promenadeplatz at night in November of last year because he was looking for a safe place to sleep in “dangerous Munich”. Andreas Forstner, judge of the 25th Chamber of Appeal at the District Court of Munich I, sentenced Ahmed B. to nine months in prison for attempted theft.
Whether Ahmed B. actually comes from Syria and is only 24 years old, as he claims, cannot be verified. He traveled under various identities, there is no official identification document. He didn’t want to talk to the court interpreter in Arabic but in French. In any case, the accused has no lack of imagination. In the first instance before the local court, he surprised with the following story: He traveled to Munich on November 2, had enough cash with him, but could not go to a hotel due to the corona pandemic. Then he went looking for a safe place to sleep, “because in Munich people are attacked and robbed on the street”. Justament at the exclusive Promenadeplatz, a row of houses behind the police headquarters, he discovered an “abandoned house” at around 0.30 am: the jeweler Carl Weishaupt. He must have overlooked the brightly lit showcases in the shop. In any case, it was “a ghost” who then led him up a three meter high downpipe to a tilted window on the first floor. After the effort of scrambling, he was extremely disappointed that there was no sofa bed in the room, only jewels and jewelry.
Ahmed B. had set off the alarm as he got in, and the police only had to fall over once to get to the scene. As Ahmed B. continued, he wanted to leave the house via the door on the ground floor, but it was locked. The retreat via the downpipe was also cut off, because the police and the service dog were already standing in front of the door.
Ahmed B. had more than 1700 euros in cash and a Louis Vuitton rucksack with a number of women’s glasses. There was also a camera on the memory card of which there were photos of an Asian-looking woman in front of Munich’s sights. In the first instance, the district court wanted to confiscate these belongings and see Ahmed B. behind bars for a year. In the appeal hearing before the regional court, he finally made a confession. His defense attorney Claudia Enghofer said that this should be honored in the judgment. She pleaded for her client to get the seized items back. He collects glasses. “And even a thief can have something with him that he hasn’t stolen.” Prosecutor Martin Stenzel was of the opinion that B. first had to prove where the money came from and that it had not been stolen.
“We hear a lot here,” commented Judge Forstner on the defendant’s stories. He decided that all things would be confiscated. Ahmed B. will have to stay in custody longer anyway. A few days ago he was sentenced by the local court to ten months’ imprisonment without parole for two powerful fist blows against a fellow inmate for dangerous bodily harm. Here, too, B. wants to appeal.