Federal Supreme Court confirms judgment against Zurich gallery owner
Published: Friday, Dec 22nd 2023, 12:10
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The Federal Supreme Court has confirmed the conviction of a 38-year-old man for intentional homicide by the Zurich High Court. The man had killed a friend in his parents' house in Küsnacht ZH in 2014 while intoxicated with drugs.
The crime took place at the end of December 2014. The man, intoxicated with cocaine and ketamine, hit his friend over the head with a heavy candlestick and rammed a candle into his neck. Almost nine years after the crime, the Federal Supreme Court's decision, published on Friday, is now the final verdict.
The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeals of the accused and the public prosecutor's office against the judgment of the Zurich High Court of May 31, 2022. The High Court sentenced the German-born man, who comes from a family of gallery owners and was himself the owner of a gallery, to 12 years' imprisonment, which was deferred in favor of inpatient treatment for addiction.
It convicted him not only of intentional homicide, but also of rape and multiple sexual assaults on his then girlfriend in a London hotel in October 2014. The man recently unsuccessfully defended himself against the rape conviction before the Federal Court.
Public prosecutor demanded higher sentence
The public prosecutor's office, on the other hand, demanded a guilty verdict for the sexual offenses of aggravated rape and multiple counts of aggravated coercion. In addition, the public prosecutor's office requested a higher sentence, namely 16 instead of 12 years' imprisonment.
At the end of June 2017, the Meilen District Court sentenced the accused to 12.5 years' imprisonment. However, the High Court overturned this sentence. It found that the man was insane due to his drug use and reduced the sentence to 3 years. However, the Federal Supreme Court rejected this ruling and the Zurich High Court had to take up the case again.
(Judgments 7B_202/2022 and 7B_203/2022 of October 18, 2023)
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