Death of Joel
Trial begins in Neubrandenburg: accused teenager remains silent – public prosecutor’s office is investigating brother
Trial begins at the Brandenburg regional court against a teenager who is said to have stabbed six-year-old Joel
© Bernd Wüstneck / DPA
The teenager who is said to have stabbed six-year-old Joel last September is silent in the dock. Meanwhile, the public prosecutor’s office is pursuing new clues – and is investigating the defendant’s brother.
It is a special process – one that causes a stir because of its special circumstances. A teenager is said to have beaten and stabbed a child in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania last September. Six-year-old Joel dies; the teenager is said to have run away. A trial against him has been ongoing in the regional court since Tuesday Neubrandenburg. The charge: manslaughter. The young person faces a prison sentence of up to ten years.
When the presiding judge opened the session before the regional court in the third largest city in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the defendant was missing from the dock. He should only enter the hall when the press representatives have left the hall. Since the defendant is a juvenile, the trial takes place behind closed doors. Accordingly, little information was made public during the first day of the trial.
The defendant has been in custody for months. So far he has been silent – and according to information from the German Press Agency, he is still silent on Tuesday. Nothing further is known about a motive. According to a report, it is clear that he is responsible – responsible for the death of six-year-old Joel.
Prosecutors target brother of defendant
While the trial is taking place behind closed doors in the district court and the family of the killed Joel is being questioned, new details are filtering out from elsewhere – a few kilometers away: the Neubrandenburg public prosecutor’s office is investigating the defendant’s older brother. The investigations against the 17-year-old are related to the Joel case, a spokeswoman said. After the charges were brought against the 14-year-old at the time of the crime, the public prosecutor’s office received a tip and initiated an investigation against the brother, it was said. The “Ostsee-Zeitung” had previously reported on it.
The public prosecutor’s office did not provide any specific details about the proceedings against the older brother. It was said that they did not want to jeopardize the investigations and the ongoing process. According to the information, the defendant’s brother is not in custody. In addition, the presumption of innocence applies.
The presumption of innocence also applies to the younger brother. Nevertheless, the prosecution’s accusation reads cruelly. He is said to have hit Joel in the face in the community of Pragsdorf near Neubrandenburg on September 14th last year and stabbed him seven times with a knife with a blade around 15 centimeters long. As a result of the stabs, Joel died due to blood loss and compression of the sternum.
Why did Joel have to die?
The teenager is therefore charged with manslaughter. The lawyer for the family of the killed Joel, Christine Habetha, also used the word murder in the “Ostsee-Zeitung”. Legally speaking, all doors have to be unlocked. “Is it really just homicide or are there motives for the murder or evidence of murder?”
There was one question in particular that many people asked themselves in the Joel case – especially the relatives, but also the lawyer Habetha: Why? Why did Joel have to die? Habetha said on Tuesday immediately before the start of the trial that she had not yet found any clues as to a motive. “Of course it makes you puzzle,” she added.
Even after the first day of negotiations on Tuesday, the answer to “why” remains unclear. The next date in the process is scheduled for this Thursday, after which five further continuation dates are planned until the end of March. Then there could be a verdict – and the answer to the question of “why”.