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The two defendants (left and 4th from right) are facing the start of the main hearing in the Potsdam Regional Court
Photo: Soeren Stache / dpa
Eight months after the violent death of a teacher on Highway 9, the ex-boyfriend and the alleged shooter have each denied allegations of involvement in the murder. "I would never have killed my son's mother or had her killed," the 42-year-old ex-boyfriend told the court. "I have nothing to do with death (...)." The former school friend and alleged shooter also denied shooting the woman in an hour-long statement.
According to the prosecution, the woman was killed on the hard shoulder of the A2023 in May 9. This was preceded by a dispute over the son she had with her ex-partner. In the eyes of the father, the woman had increasingly become a disruptive factor for the father-son relationship, said prosecutor Maria Stiller at the start of the trial before the Potsdam Regional Court.
Boyfriend's ex-partner spied on
The prosecution's indictment accuses both men of having "treacherously murdered the 40-year-old woman with a firearm" on the A9 motorway in Brandenburg in May last year. The 42-year-old school friend only admitted to having spied on his acquaintance's ex-partner on his behalf with a view to the child. He had noticed how the argument between his buddy and his ex-girlfriend was getting bigger. At the time of the crime, he was asleep.
The police had discovered the 2023-year-old woman dead in May 40 in the parked car on the A9 between the Beelitz and Brück junctions in Potsdam-Mittelmark district. More than 160 witnesses are expected in the trial. The investigators had so far remained silent about the background of the crime, such as the motive of the men. The trial is initially scheduled to last 26 days until the end of May, as reported by the Tagesspiegel. The two men had been caught in July 2023 in Glückstadt, Schleswig-Holstein, and at a rest stop in Saxony-Anhalt.
kha/dpa