Cologne (dpa / lnw) – A 39-year-old former inmate of the JVA in Cologne-Ossendorf testified on Monday in the trial against the former Reemtsma kidnapper Thomas Drach in front of the Cologne district court. Drach admitted to him three of the four alleged robberies. “He said all but one of the charges were true,” said the 39-year-old. Drach was very sure that the court could not prove anything. The 62-year-old was not worried about a report that was supposed to identify Drach based on his knock-knees. “A blind man with a cane sees that it’s me,” Drach said to him. But that’s not enough evidence in court.
Drach is accused of four armed robberies on money transporters in Cologne, Frankfurt am Main and in Limburg in Hesse. In addition to particularly serious robbery, the prosecution also accuses him of attempted murder because Drach is said to have shot money messengers.
The witness also reported that Drach, who had kidnapped the tobacco company heir Jan Philipp Reemtsma in 1996 and released him after paying the ransom, had planned another kidnapping. Accordingly, Drach initially planned this with a view to “the richest woman in Europe”. But then Drach reoriented himself and looked at the kidnapping of “the second richest woman”, a Swiss woman. Drach expected 30 million euros as a ransom.
The witness, who is in the witness protection program for testimony in his own criminal case, entered the courtroom accompanied by two balaclava masked and armed Customs detectives. The men did not leave his side during the testimony either. The witness reported that Drach had told him that if his freedom was at stake, “he would also shoot his wife and children”.
