A 32-year-old Swiss man who threatened city councilor Karin Rykart on Limmatquai has been found not to be guilty. An inpatient measure is ordered for the schizophrenic man.
It’s not always so tranquil: guests are sitting on the terrace of a restaurant on Limmatquai in Zurich.
It was Tuesday, June 8, 2021, when Zurich City Councilor Karin Rykart was sitting at a table in the Rüden restaurant on Zurich’s Limmatquai around lunchtime with her colleagues Daniel Leupi and Andreas Hauri. Then a strange cyclist approached her out of nowhere, stepped up to the table and threatened the executive politician of the Greens. The exact wording used by the man was left open by the Zurich District Court when it opened its judgment against the 32-year-old threat on Friday.
Karin Rykart has testified that the man threatened that he would “smash her”.
Karin Rykart had testified that the man had threatened that he would “flatten” her. Daniel Leupi heard that she was “still coming”. Andreas Hauri’s version was: “Be careful, I’ll catch you.” According to the presiding district judge Christoph Benninger, the accused used words that were frightening. The court is firmly of the opinion that politicians do not have to have thicker skin than other people.
The incident was so threatening for Chief of Police Rykart that she herself filed a complaint with the city police. At the time, the city councilor told the police that she was quite used to the fact that not everyone agreed with her work as a politician. But she was very shocked by this incident because she didn’t know what it was all about.
The 32-year-old accused Swiss was also accused of other offenses in the indictment: Just three days earlier, he is said to have entered another restaurant in Zurich’s district 1 and given a completely unknown young financial advisor two punches in the face. He is said to have met this victim again a day after the incident with the city councilwoman. He is said to have threatened him that he would cut him into a thousand pieces, kill him and slit open his “mother hooker” and father. He then swung a massive Velo chain lock and threw it twice at his victim, who suffered a lacerated elbow as a result.
Non-self-inflicted incapacity
After the last incident, the man was arrested and has been in prison ever since. A court expert found the 32-year-old to have paranoid schizophrenia. The public prosecutor therefore requested that it be established that the accused had committed the offenses of multiple threats, attempted bodily harm and assault while not being guilty of his own fault. An inpatient measure within the meaning of Article 59(1) of the Criminal Code should be ordered for the treatment of mental disorders.
The trial took place last week, the verdict was discussed on March 4th and now opened on Friday. In the courtroom, the accused said that in retrospect it was of course shameful and problematic what he had done at the time. But he meant the statement legally, not physically. The wording was intended as a metaphor. He never wanted to hurt anyone.
At the time of the threat, the man had believed, because of his schizophrenia, that the judiciary was conspiring against him and that he was being pursued by the police. In his delusion, the financial adviser, who was completely unknown to him, was also part of the judicial conspiracy. The report came to the conclusion that without treatment, there was a high risk of further violent crimes. The man had previously received a 42-month prison sentence for endangering life and other crimes.
No therapy place found
At the trial, the public prosecutor and defense attorneys agreed that preventive detention was actually the wrong accommodation for the mentally ill man. The accused was admitted to early commencement of the measure. However, there are currently no vacancies in high-security facilities with forensic psychiatric departments. It was therefore clear to the defender that the system was failing here.
He spoke of a tragedy. His client can also be treated in a “normal” closed clinic with the usual safety standards. He therefore applied for the 32-year-old to be admitted and treated in such a clinic for a year. The public prosecutor also believed that there was no institution into which the mentally ill could be admitted for the duration of an examination. It is the task of politics to create such an institution.
The district court denied the request for a one-year confinement to a normal hospital and extended the preventive detention until May 11. The application is a typical enforcement question and a decision on it does not lie within the competence of the court, explains Benninger. The judges order the inpatient measure as requested. However, the accused did not commit an attempted bodily harm against the financial advisor, but committed simple bodily harm.
The man has a serious mental disorder. There is still a risk of recurrence if he is not treated. He has now been in detention for nine months without treatment. The situation is “bad and irritating”. The court is of the opinion that it must be possible by May 11th to find a therapy place.
Judgment DG210188 of March 4, 2022, not yet final.