The district court of Munich I convicted football world champion Jérôme Boateng in his appeal process for bodily harm and imposed a fine of 120 daily rates of 10,000 euros. “For us, the facts are more than proven,” explains the judge.
Soccer world champion Jérôme Boateng has also been convicted of bodily harm in his appeal process. The Munich Regional Court I imposed a fine of 120 daily rates of 10,000 euros each, a total of 1.2 million euros. If the second decision now becomes final, the soccer world champion of 2014 will have a criminal record. Because he was fined more than 90 daily rates.
Last year, the district court imposed a higher fine overall, but the number of daily rates was only half as high – specifically: 60 daily rates of 30,000 euros each, a total of 1.8 million euros.
“For us, the facts are more than proven,” said judge Andreas Forstner. The court saw it as proven that Boateng hit, injured and insulted his then partner on a joint Caribbean vacation in 2018. Boateng has now been convicted in two cases of bodily harm, in the first instance only one case.
Boateng’s defense lawyers applied for an acquittal. They assumed that his ex-girlfriend invented and “instrumentalized” the allegations “in the fight for the children” and complained that their client had been prejudiced. Boateng is someone “who was actually convicted before he got up in the morning,” said his lawyer Peter Zuriel. “A prominent person cannot defend himself in the same way that a run-of-the-mill person would.”
His colleague Norman Nathan Gelbart spoke of alleged contradictions in Boateng’s ex-girlfriend’s statement: “In dubio pro reo.” Judge Forstner replied: “For us there are no dubious and therefore there is also nothing pro reo.”
The public prosecutor had demanded a suspended sentence of one and a half years and an additional fine of 1.5 million euros. The incident was probably “just the tip of the iceberg,” said prosecutor Stefanie Eckert, speaking of a violent relationship between Boateng and his ex-partner.
Eckert also criticized the footballer’s defense. The prosecutor said his lawyers “threw dirt over the injured party” during the proceedings.
Boateng’s defense attorneys had emphasized before the pleadings that their client’s financial circumstances had changed. Advertising partners have terminated contracts with Boateng – for example for advertising glasses. That’s why he currently only has the income from Olympique Lyon, where he is under contract. That is a little more than 240,000 euros net per month, but that still includes maintenance costs for his three children. The lawyers calculated maintenance costs of 5,000 euros per month per child for Boateng’s eleven-year-old twin daughters alone.
Boateng’s defense lawyers had done everything to ensure that the trial did not end on the third day, submitted one request for evidence after the other – and even a request for bias against Judge Forstner. He reached his goal of completing the process on Wednesday, hours later than hoped. Boateng still has the opportunity to challenge the verdict with an appeal to the Bavarian Supreme Court, as a court spokeswoman said.
Judge Forstner tells the defendant to think it over carefully. “At some point the defense will also come to an end,” he said at some point during the long court day. “Mr. Boateng, as a defender, probably knows that very well.”
After the verdict, Boateng’s defenders no longer comment. Jérôme Boateng himself says not a word when he leaves the court in the dark in the evening. He also leaves a young man who asks him for a photo because he is his “biggest fan” in silence.
