The death of the 15-year-old caused great horror in the summer of 2022: Two boys are said to have suffocated Anastasia and then hidden it in a bush. One of them is now being convicted of murder - the other was not yet of criminal age at the time of the crime. The co-plaintiff finds this "intolerable".
In the trial surrounding the violent death of 15-year-old Anastasia from Salzgitter, the accused of murder was sentenced to eight years in prison. This was announced by a spokeswoman for the Braunschweig district court. The 14-year-old at the time of the crime was convicted under juvenile criminal law. The hearing was not public.
The youth was charged with treacherous murder. Together with a 13-year-old classmate, he is said to have suffocated the teenager on June 19 on an overgrown property in Salzgitter and hidden her body in a bush. The public prosecutor's office in Braunschweig accused him of having killed the girl "acting jointly with a person under criminal jurisdiction". As the German Press Agency learned from legal circles, the public prosecutor's office had demanded a youth sentence of eight years and six months. The representatives of the co-plaintiffs wanted one year more, the defense pleaded for acquittal. The verdict is not final and the defense wants to appeal.
The alleged accomplice was not yet of criminal age at the time of the crime and was placed in a psychiatric clinic shortly after the crime with the consent of his parents. He is now 14 years old. The accessory prosecution calls for a review of the age of criminal responsibility. In this specific case, it is unbearable to state that a 13-year-old boy is considered not to be guilty and cannot be prosecuted for the alleged crime, said lawyer Steffen Hörning.
According to German law, children under the age of 14 are not yet of criminal responsibility. From the age of 14, young people are held responsible for their crimes under certain conditions and - as in the Anastasia trial - sentenced according to juvenile criminal law. Only the 14-year-old at the time of the crime was charged.
