Bonn (dpa / lnw) - The Bonn district court has to renegotiate a process concluded last year about the death of a man found in a forest. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) overturned the judgment from March 2021, in which an accused had been sentenced to six and a half years of youth imprisonment. The case will be referred back to another chamber of the district court for a new hearing, the BGH said in a judgment that has now been published.
The regional court in Bonn had convicted a then 20-year-old man of manslaughter in the process. A co-defendant, then 30 years old, was acquitted - although he is said to have been present when the victim was killed. During the trial, the two accused charged the other with killing the man.
The events are said to have happened in July 2020 in a forest near Eitorf in the Rhein-Sieg district. The victim had been hit with a branch, among other things. Parts of the corpse are said to have been doused with alcohol and set on fire. According to the court, the men knew each other from the drug scene.
The BGH complained that the assessment of evidence, with which the district court had rejected "a joint crime plan by the two accused" and ruled out intent to kill the ultimately acquitted co-accused, was to be regarded as "incomplete". It cannot be ruled out that the co-accused would not have been convicted if "all essential aspects" had been taken into account.
Both the public prosecutor's office and the convicted defendant appealed against the verdict. The Bonn regional court announced on Thursday that a date for the new hearing had not yet been set.
