About two years after the murder of a 19-year-old, the district court Ulm sentenced a man to life imprisonment. The "meticulous reasoning" by the investigators have convincingly demonstrated the central involvement of a 47-year-old defendant, said the presiding judge at the verdict.
The court thus followed the plea of the prosecutor. The judgment against the German born in Albania is not yet final (file reference: 21 Js 10854/17).
Another suspect from Albania was so far volatile.
The motive of the two was revenge for the death of a shot dead in Albania in 2000, the judge said. The killed 19-year-old had been the nephew of the then offender. The act has triggered a whole series of "blood revenge" killings.
The victim was lured to a lake near Ulm in April 2017 and killed there with at least eight blows to the back of his head. Then the dead man was wrapped in a tarpaulin, connected to a concrete part and sunk in the lake. The corpse drove back to the water surface after some time, where witnesses discovered it.
The defense had argued that the 47-year-old had only done "henchman services" for the actual killer. Anyone who carried out the deadly hammer blows is irrelevant, the judge said. Both had acted in a clear murder intention.