The man had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two police officers. The court also determined the particular gravity of the guilt, so dismissal after 15 years is ruled out.
The verdict in the case of the Kusel police murders was made on Wednesday, and the defense of the main defendant, Andreas S., has now appealed. The appeals against the court decision were received the evening after the verdict, said the spokeswoman for the district court of Kaiserslautern on Thursday at the request of the German press agency With.
The 39-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment for two counts of murder. The court also determined the particular gravity of the guilt. A release of the German after 15 years in prison is therefore ruled out. With the verdict, the court followed the request of the public prosecutor.
The court saw it as proven that Andreas S. shot a 24-year-old police officer and a 29-year-old police commissioner in the head at the end of January. With the murders he wanted to cover up commercial poaching, said the reasoning.
Andreas S. in court in Kaiserslautern. He has now appealed the court decision.
(Photo: POOL/via REUTERS)
The murder of the two young police officers during a vehicle check on a remote district road in the western Palatinate had caused horror throughout Germany. The deed, as senior public prosecutor Stefan Orthen made clear in his plea, had “executive character”.
The district court found the co-defendant Florian V guilty of complicity in commercial poaching and of evading criminal prosecution, but he remained unpunished. The 33-year-old, who was initially also being investigated for murder, was later considered the most important witness for the prosecution.
Andreas S. intervened again and again during the course of the trial, sometimes he talked shop with the judge about thermal imaging riflescopes (“if you want it to be sharp, you have to calibrate it”), sometimes he went to the judge’s desk to explain documents. Right at the beginning he confessed to having shot the police officer in an alleged self-defense situation, but Florian V. shot the police officer. Florian V. denied that – the court believed him.