He has already been sentenced for the murder of two police officers, and a 39-year-old is now being tried for poaching a few years ago. He denies the accusation. However, one witness admits that he gave him a false alibi, another has gaps in his memory.
There are unusual circumstances for a district court that accompany the process in Neunkirchen. Interested spectators have been queuing in front of the entrance since early morning to secure a seat in the hall. There are strict security controls, the accused is brought in in handcuffs and anklecuffs.
It is only about hunting poaching and the allegation of attempted bodily harm. But the accused is of particular public interest: it is the man who was sentenced to life imprisonment two and a half months ago in Kaiserslautern for the murder of two police officers in the western Palatinate. However, this morning in the district court, this is only indirectly mentioned.
“In another matter,” said the judge, when the 39-year-old accused reported that he had been in Frankenthal Prison since February 1. The judge also speaks of a “certain peculiarity” in this district court procedure. The act was five years ago and “definitely has nothing to do with everything that has become known or that revolves around a procedure in Kaiserslautern”.
The 39-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Kaiserslautern district court in November. With the murder of a 24-year-old police officer and a 29-year-old police commissioner during a vehicle inspection on January 31, 2022 near Kusel (West Palatinate), according to the judge’s ruling at the time, he wanted to cover up commercial poaching. The court also determined the particular gravity of the guilt. However, the judgment is not yet final.
As in the murder trial in Kaiserslautern, the accused follows the trial in Neunkirchen closely and keeps making notes. He asks witnesses detailed questions, is emphatically polite and sometimes thanks them for their statements. But what the main witness for the prosecution reports and what the prosecution accuses him of is in clear contrast to what he himself says.
The Saarlander is accused of shooting a deer with a silenced gun around 10:30 p.m. on September 7, 2017 near Spiesen-Elversberg without a hunting license. This is said to have been observed by a game warden, who then blocked the accused’s vehicle on a dirt road. Instead of stopping, the alleged poacher drove towards him. The witness said he was only able to avoid it by jumping to the side. “Otherwise it could have gone wrong.”
The accused, a baker who was a hunter at the time and had also traded in game, rejected all allegations. Because he was not allowed to read out a personal statement in its entirety at the time the evidence was being taken, he also referred to his statement to the police at the time. He neither shot deer in the neighboring district nor tried to run over anyone. There was a “strained relationship” with the other hunters at the time. “I wasn’t so popular in the hunter scene because the envy of the hunt was so widespread,” he says.
Several witnesses testified on Tuesday, including a fellow hunter who admitted to initially giving the accused a false alibi with the wrong time to the police because he asked for it. Another witness, who had testified at the time that the accused had been at his house until around 9.30 p.m., could no longer remember that evening, but emphasized that his testimony at the time was correct. The proceedings before the district court will now continue on March 2nd, further trial days are planned for March 14th and 28th.
