The district court in Hinwil came to the conclusion that the man accepted fatally injuring his victim.
The district court in Hinwil has sentenced a Swiss man to a long prison term for attempted murder.
The prosecutor had demanded 13 years, the defense attorney only 15 months due to physical injury; it has now become 8½ years. The Hinwil district court presented its verdict in a media release on Thursday: A 28-year-old Swiss man is guilty of attempted murder. The court ordered an outpatient measure to accompany the prison sentence.
The 56-year-old victim will receive compensation of 45,000 francs for the psychological effects of the crime, and his wife will be awarded 10,000 francs. The man was on the way to the Tann-Dürnten train station as the safety officer for the municipality of Dürnten when he was approached at around 1:40 a.m. on a Saturday morning in August 2021 by a resident who, according to his own statements, felt his sleep was disturbed.
The resident yelled at the security guard, drew a jackknife and, without warning, stabbed the victim once in the stomach and three times in the back. Then he threw the seriously injured man onto the track, followed him and punched the man lying defenseless on the ground several times in the head and face. The seriously injured victim was unable to move and feared that a train would run over him.
Danger to life affirmed
During the court hearing, the accused, who had no previous convictions, denied that he wanted to kill the injured party. He acted out of fear and emotion because the security guard allegedly pulled a pepper spray, which the prosecutor says is not true. The defender denied that life was in danger.
According to the media release, however, the court has now come to the conclusion that the facts described in the indictment have been fulfilled. The institute for forensic medicine has confirmed that the victim was in mortal danger due to the threatening loss of blood. Since this is an attempted act, according to case law, it is irrelevant whether the victim was actually in mortal danger or not.
It is generally known that knife wounds in the area of the upper body could have fatal consequences, which the accused also knew. In the dynamic movement sequence, the latter could hardly have any control over the puncture sites and their puncture depth. The doctors were also amazed that no vital organs were injured by the four punctures.
The accused accepted the possibility of fatally injuring his victim. A direct intentional action, of which he was accused, could not be proven. No such intention could be inferred from the words he shouted during the act and “his monosyllabic and inconsistent answers during the interrogations”.
“Betrayed basely”
According to the media release, the accused’s statements about his life and the specific night cannot explain or even justify the crime. The resident was neither harassed nor provoked by the security guard or third parties. He “acted viciously, in a kind of violent explosion.”
The expert attested that the accused had a personality disorder, but stated that he was fully culpable in the act. In the accused’s favour, the court evaluated his possible intentional actions, the attempted commission of the crime, his confession of the objective facts and his cooperative behavior.
Judgment DG220018 of October 12, 2022, not yet final.