Karlsruhe (dpa/lsw) - 27 years after the violent death of a woman in Sindelfingen (Böblingen district), the trial against the alleged perpetrator has to start all over again. The man who is said to have attacked and stabbed the unknown 35-year-old late in the evening on a sidewalk on a wide street in 1995 was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder by the Stuttgart district court last year. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe has now completely overturned this judgment, as can be seen from the decision published on Tuesday. The murder characteristic of insidiousness was not sufficiently documented.

The man was only convicted decades later, when DNA traces under the victim's fingernails could be assigned to him. The conviction of the district court of his perpetration is not objectionable, write the BGH judges. However, they see a problem in the fact that it was not possible to clarify what happened at the beginning of the attack. It is completely open whether there was a conversation or an argument before the first stitches and whether the woman could have fled or called for help. Witnesses came to the scene later. Another criminal division of the district court should now be given the opportunity to examine the case again from the ground up. The accused had appealed.