Zurich court sentences punter to eleven years in prison
Published: Wednesday, Mar 27th 2024, 18:21
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The Zurich District Court has sentenced a 24-year-old man to eleven years' imprisonment for attempted murder. The man had strangled and robbed a prostitute to the point of unconsciousness in 2018.
The course of the crime, the choking twice until unconsciousness, was established for the court, as the judge said on Wednesday. Every child knows that people could die in the process, he noted. The attacker had at least accepted the woman's death. Because he had acted out of greed, only attempted murder came into question.
The court also handed down a 10-year expulsion order. The accused is to pay the victim 30,000 francs in compensation. This is relatively high, said the judge.
The man's subsequent offense of leaving the country for Brazil was a negative factor. This was possible because the victim did not want her family to find out about her work as an occasional prostitute. She only told the police about it after a week, by which time the 24-year-old had already left.
No thought of consequences
The accused admitted to strangling the woman twice during the trial. However, killing the woman had never been his goal.
He could not answer why the burly man had not just threatened the prostitute in order to get money. "I didn't think about the consequences," said the 24-year-old. Today he knows that he acted cowardly.
After the crime, he robbed her so that he could fly to Spain. His ex-girlfriend was staying there, but she no longer wanted to know anything about him.
Suddenly robbery instead of sex
He would have fled if the woman had stayed on the ground after the first choking, the 24-year-old explained in court. However, she regained consciousness, whereupon he choked her so hard that foam formed in front of her mouth.
He explained his crime with "many chaotic thoughts". First he wanted to distract himself from his girlfriend's break-up by having sex. Then he wanted to rob the prostitute in order to return to his ex-girlfriend.
He had thought that the woman had died after the second attack. Only after several years did he learn that she was still alive.
Led a normal life
After staying in Spain, the accused went to Brazil, where he led a normal life. He accepted the expulsion, even though he would have liked to build a life in Switzerland.
When he tried to travel to Switzerland in 2021, the 24-year-old was arrested in Portugal. He has been behind bars ever since. He is sorry for the crime and the experience must have been traumatic for the victim. Unfortunately, he cannot take it back.
"Wanted to die"
The public prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence of 13 years. For him, the multiple strangulation was attempted murder. The 24-year-old's defense lawyer demanded 6.5 years in prison for attempted murder.
For the public prosecutor, it was clear that the accused had acted extremely ruthlessly, as he said on Wednesday at Zurich District Court. "Anyone who strangles someone twice as long wants them dead."
The accused had attacked the woman for selfish reasons - because he needed money. She had been a purely accidental victim who had experienced an agonizing agony.
In addition to the prison sentence, the public prosecutor had demanded a fine of 120 daily rates of 30 francs for other offenses. He considered the amount of the expulsion from the country to be 12 years for the Brazilian. The accused had only spent six years in Switzerland before his arrest.
Underlying schizophrenic disorder
The defense attorney brought an underlying schizophrenic disorder into play. An expert opinion diagnosed this, describing it as episodic and diminishing. The illness should result in a more severe mitigation of the sentence, the defense lawyer argued.
The private plaintiff demanded compensation of 70,000 francs through her lawyer. The defendant felt that the court should decide on the amount.
The ruling can still be appealed to the High Court.
©Keystone/SDA
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