A long-simmering argument between several men escalates at a traffic light crossing in Hanover: a 33-year-old shoots a car driver, just missing the passenger in the car. For this he has to go to prison for 10 years.
After fatal shots were fired at a motorist at an intersection, the Hanover Regional Court sentenced a 33-year-old to ten years in prison. The judges found the man guilty of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter, a court spokeswoman said. According to the convictions of the criminal court, there was a dispute at a traffic light crossing in June last year. The passenger of a vehicle is said to have got out and hit the defendant's car with a wooden slat in order to get him out.
He then shot the passenger with a pistol, who fled and was unharmed. The 33-year-old then shot the driver of the car through the open driver's window, fatally hitting him. According to the court spokeswoman, there was a long-simmering dispute between the accused and the passenger.
With its verdict, the chamber exceeded the demands of the public prosecutor's office. This had demanded seven years in prison for the manslaughter and an acquittal for the shots at the passenger, since, according to the spokeswoman, it had assumed a self-defense situation. The defense had pleaded for an acquittal overall. The accused's lawyers also consider him to be less criminally responsible because of his post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of childhood experiences in the Kosovo war.
According to the spokeswoman, the accused had become involved in the process that began in November last year and "essentially admitted" the allegations. In his last word, according to the spokeswoman, he apologized in particular to the family members of the victim. The event was the highest punishment of his life, he said. If he could, he would turn back time. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
