Alleged perpetrator of Jestetten (D) denies crime in letter
Published: Tuesday, Jan 9th 2024, 12:30
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The accused in the Jestetten (D) homicide has denied the crime in a letter to his relatives, as was announced on Tuesday at the Waldshut-Tiengen district court. The court is expected to hand down a verdict next week.
"The murderer is on the loose outside while I sit here in prison," the accused wrote after his arrest in June last year in a letter to his relatives, which the judge read out on Tuesday.
He had simply wanted to go for a walk along the Rhine when this crazy young man approached him, the letter continued. The man had a bag of drugs with him. There were other people there, one of whom must have killed the victim later. He could not explain how his own DNA traces got on the victim.
As the defendant had so far persistently remained silent, the statements in the letter were his first comments to be made public at the court hearing.
DNA traces incriminate the accused
The preceding questioning of the DNA expert did not yield any fundamentally new findings. She provided detailed information about the DNA traces already known to have been found. The public prosecutor's office based its indictment on DNA traces of the accused found on the massive log with which the victim was beaten to death.
It is still unclear how it came about that DNA traces of the accused were found on the penis of the man who was killed. The victim, a 31-year-old man from the canton of St. Gallen, was found dead on the banks of the Rhine in Jestetten on June 9 last year - with his trousers and underpants pulled down.
It is still unclear what happened before the crime, for example whether there was sexual contact between the perpetrator and the victim, or whether the perpetrator wanted to rob the victim.
The accused is a 39-year-old man from Latvia. He was a worker in Germany at the time of the crime and was employed on construction sites in the region. He lived a few kilometers away from the crime scene. He was arrested two weeks after the crime.
Verdict expected next week
The trial will continue next Monday. Another trial day is scheduled for Tuesday. According to the judge, the court is expected to announce the verdict on Thursday.
The public prosecutor's office is demanding a conviction for manslaughter. The defendant, who has already spent 10 years in prison for a homicide in Latvia, is to be sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. Subsequent preventive detention is also to be considered.
©Keystone/SDA
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