The murder trial for the killing of the Chechen video blogger Martin B. in Gerasdorf ended on Friday in Korneuburg (Lower Austria) with life imprisonment. The defendant was found guilty of shooting his 43-year-old compatriot – a critic of Chechen regional president Ramzan Kadyrov – on July 4, 2020.
The woman in the back row of the negotiating room is sobbing softly. She turns her head to one side. Nobody should see their suffering. The judge has just projected a photo of her dead husband onto the screen. Her dead husband: the native Chechen Martin B. (43), fled from President Kadyrov. He made no secret of his hatred of the despot and screamed his anger out of his body as a video blogger “Ansor from Vienna”. Many are convinced that it should have cost him his life. The word contract murder was used a lot in the run-up to the trial.
A Chechen (48) is on trial. But Sar-Ali A. denies everything. Will not be put off by the incriminating evidence. One thing is certain: he and the victim came into contact through a weapon purchase. On July 4, 2020, the two met on the site of a car repair shop in Gerasdorf near Vienna. Sar-Ali A. is said to have executed the blogger with six shots, the last of which in the head.
Did the defendant get a bounty?
What the defendant denies: “When I drove away, the man was still alive.” A completely uninvolved witness who tinkered with his car saw that Sar-Ali A. only left the premises after the shooting. The defendant was also unable to explain why traces of smoke were found on his hands after his arrest and why he had the victim’s blood on his shoes. But why should Sar-Ali have killed A.? According to the judge, it was rumored on the Internet that the accused had received a bounty. There is a photo of the defendant’s brother showing him with a thick wad of money.
The murder weapon could not be found. She may have turned Sar-Ali A. over to a messenger after the murder. According to rumors, the weapon must be delivered to the client. Only then does money flow. Whether this client was Kadyrov will probably never be fully clarified. The judgment – for life – is not final.