Man wanted to hire hitmen on the Darknet – pre-trial detention is legal

The extension of pre-trial detention for a man who tried to hire a hitman on the Darknet is legal. The Federal Court has determined this. The suspect wanted to take revenge on his ex-girlfriend. The Zurich judiciary is now conducting a criminal investigation into attempted incitement to murder.

In early January 2023, the man instructed a person to commit the crime via a platform on the dark web. For this he paid an amount in Bitcoins in several installments that corresponded to about 20,000 dollars. The man was arrested in mid-February. Since then, his pre-trial detention has been regularly extended.

In a ruling published on Monday, the Federal Court dismissed his complaint against the denied release. The man complained that the Zurich High Court had deviated from the expert’s opinion, which had classified the risk of relapse as ‘low to medium’.

“Learning Reverence”

According to the Federal Court, the position of the judges in Zurich is not objectionable. In their assessment, they not only took into account an incident from 2016 in which the complainant briefly held his ex-partner and their children captive. They also pointed out a case that the reviewer had missed. In 2021, the man had already advertised a contract on Darknet to ‘teach someone respect’ by sending him to the hospital.

The Zurich lower court was entitled to assume without arbitrariness that these facts demonstrated an escalation of violence, even though there was still uncertainty about the person to whom the first contract related. In her report, the expert also assumed that in the event of a relapse, the person would no longer act through an intermediary, but on his own.

According to the court, the loss of his job and his high alimony arrears may give the complainant the feeling that he is in a hopeless situation. The proximity to his ex-girlfriend’s place of residence and detailed knowledge of her habits would make the act easier. Ultimately, paying for the 2023 order in installments proves his determination

(Ruling 7B_1022/2023 of January 11, 2024)

(sda)