Cologne (dpa / lnw) - With a confession from his former roommate, the process of killing a man with around 140 knife wounds and cuts began in Cologne. The 25-year-old defendant is accused of manslaughter in the proceedings at the regional court. At the start on Thursday, he admitted the crime through a statement from his defenders. "I am responsible for the death of my best friend," the statement said. He was dismayed and stunned by what had happened.
According to the prosecutor's office, the 25-year-old German was living in the apartment of the later victim in the Kalk district of Cologne on the day of the crime in June 2022. In the afternoon there was a dispute "for unexplained reasons". In the course of this, the accused is said to have taken a kitchen knife with a blade around 19 centimeters long and stabbed his opponent's entire body around 140 times. The perpetrator also injured the lung tissue of the 23-year-old with 14 stitches, who died at the scene of the crime, the indictment said.
In his statement, the defendant did not explain why the dispute had arisen. A defense attorney said he didn't want the cause of the dispute to look like a "cheap excuse". "Omitting the part about how the dispute came about is not appropriate," the presiding judge said afterwards. The defense attorneys agreed to discuss the issue of the dispute with their client again.
The parents of the deceased appear as joint plaintiffs in the process. The 23-year-old was their only child. The procedure is scheduled to last another nine days until the end of January 2023.
