Andreas S.* (39) was sentenced to life imprisonment at the end of January for the murder of two police officers in West Germany.
The court in Kaiserslautern also ruled on Wednesday that the guilt was particularly serious. A release of the 39-year-old after 15 years in prison is therefore ruled out.
Police officers Yasmin B.* († 24) and Alexander K.* († 29) were shot in the head during the nighttime crime on a remote district road near Kusel in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The bloody act during a vehicle inspection had caused horror across the country.
22 dead animals in the van
The public prosecutor assumes that the main defendant wanted to cover up the poaching with the crime. At the time of the crime, 22 freshly shot deer were said to have been in the van.
The court found a co-defendant guilty of complicity in commercial poaching. However, it waived the sentence because the 33-year-old had already testified extensively before the trial began. He would have contributed to the investigation of the crime. The man allegedly helped remove the tracks, but did not shoot. The two men were arrested in neighboring Saarland shortly after the crime.
The main defendant stated at the hearing that the police patrol surprised the two men. “Suddenly” his accomplice at the time shot first at the policewoman with a shotgun and then at the policeman. The policeman then started shooting: Andreas S. therefore killed the 29-year-old with three shots from a shotgun in a kind of self-defense situation. However, the court did not follow this version.
The police commissioner fired 15 rounds from the service weapon, but failed to hit the gunman on the rainy January night.
Act had “performance character”
With the verdict, the court followed the request of the public prosecutor. The prosecution had said that there were several features of murder in the act and that the act had an “executive character” – so the guilt was particularly serious.
The defense had pleaded for “a fair verdict”, without any specific demand. From her point of view, the act was “not murder, maximum bodily harm resulting in death”. The verdict is not yet legally binding. (bab/SDA)
* Names known