A brother fight, a pistol shot and an attempted murder charge. The accused denied the allegation on Wednesday, speaking of an accident. Witnesses unexpectedly changed their statements. The jury nevertheless unanimously voted guilty. The sentence – 16 years imprisonment – is not final.
Public prosecutor Christoph Wancata spoke of “unusual incidents” on Thursday in the jury courtroom of the Salzburg regional court. According to this, the accused (33) with nine previous convictions – a man born in Afghanistan – shot his younger brother “in the middle of the street” on July 12, 2022. The projectile missed and developed into a ricochet: It bounced off the wall and hit the brother in the abdomen. The injury was therefore only superficial. “The defendant has a gun ban. He shouldn’t have had the gun,” emphasizes Wancata, who makes further allegations: After the crime, he threatened a witness and hit him on the head – even though he had suffered a brain hemorrhage only two weeks before. The accused denied the allegation of attempted murder , rather called what happened an “accident”. According to defense attorney Bernhard Kettl, the whole thing happened in the gambling scene: the victim wanted to go to an illegal betting shop where the accused worked as security. There a dispute broke out: “I saw the gun on him and wanted to take it away from him.” In the course of the scramble, the shot is said to have been released. The accused and the prosecutor recreated this scene – a crime reconstruction before the eyes of the jury. This was followed by an about-face: Two witnesses, including the victim, told a similar version of the accident and thus exonerated the accused. During the police interrogation, they had spoken of a “targeted” firing. The jury was unlikely to be convinced by the explanations. They unanimously found the accused guilty on all counts: 16 years imprisonment, not final.
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