Ku'damm Raser for the third time in court

Maximilian Warshitsky would like to come to rest. He finally wants to finish. But that will take a while. For the third time before the Berlin Regional Court, a lawsuit has begun for the death of his father and the madness of young men, who rest in endless self-esteem at around 160 kilometers per hour on Berlin's Kurfürstendamm.

Marvin N. and Hamdi H. are responsible for the murder of Maximilian Warshitsky's father, as well as for dangerous bodily harm and intentional endangering of road traffic. The procedure has a long history: a first judgment was overturned, a second trial failed shortly after the beginning. Now the third trial has begun.

"All the memories over and over again, all the emotions over and over again, going through all this over and over again is difficult," says Maximilan Warshitsky. The 37-year-old participates as a co-plaintiff in the process. He lost his mother in 2001, she died after a serious illness. Fifteen years later, his father Michael, a retired doctor, died on Berlin's Ku'damm. In the first hours of February 1, 2016.

381 hp against 225 hp

That night, Marvin N. and Hamdi H. happened to be standing side by side at a traffic light with their cars. Hamdi H. accelerated as the traffic light turned green. Marvin N. hesitated, then he started too. White Mercedes AMG CLA 45 with 381 hp against white Audi A6 TDI with 225 hp. Over twenty blocks and eleven traffic lights, whether they were red or green.

Around 12:40 am, Maximilan Warshitsky's father took his jeep near the KaDeWe on the Tauentzienstraße, the extension of the Ku'damm. The traffic light turned green for him. From the left Hamdi H. raced up, crashed sideways into the jeep of Michael Warshitsky. The 69-year-old flew with his car 72 meters in the air, the jeep landed in front of the entrance of a department store. Michael Warshitsky died in his car. The two young men remained almost unhurt.

DPA

Accident location in Berlin (2016)

Hamdi H., 29 years old, and Marvin N., 27, have long since entered the history of justice as "Ku'damm-Raser". In a first trial, the 35th Criminal Division of the Landgericht Berlin had sentenced the two to life imprisonment in February 2017 for murder - a novelty in German legal history: Previously, illegal car racing with fatal outcome had been assessed at most as a negligent homicide. Five years imprisonment, maximum.

The defenders of Hamdi H. and Marvin N. challenged the verdict, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) revised the decision and referred the case back to the district court of Berlin. Above all, the BGH criticized the reasoning of the killing resolution: The judges in Berlin had established that Hamdi H. and Marvin N. had recognized the possible death of others only secondarily and accepted them with approval, when they drove to the intersection.

At the same time, according to the conviction of the Berlin judges, they should have had no further opportunity to prevent the collision. This is a legal error, judged by the fourth BGH Senate, because without action can not be spoken of a conditional killing intent. And to convict Marvin N. as an accomplice and murderer is not enough to conclude that Hamdi H. and Marvin N. agreed to race.

In the video: Road races with fatalities

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ABIX

In August, the new edition was launched in front of the 40th Grand Criminal Court. Far the judges did not come. The defense lawyers filed a suit of bias against the three professional judges for their clients, with success. The judges justified the continuation of the arrest warrant with the old, repealed judgment. That was enough to cast doubt on their impartiality.

Now judge Matthias Schertz leads the procedure. So far, Schertz and his colleagues have not provided material for a new request for bias, says lawyer Rainer Elfferding on the sidelines of the trial. The defense's request to lift the arrest warrants against the defendants was not upheld by this Chamber. The judges around Schertz justified this but not with sentences from the repealed judgment, but with the previous investigation results.

So not the judges are the focus of this first day of negotiations, but the act. For low motives and with their cars as gemeingefährlichen means N. and H. were guilty of murder, says prosecutor Christian Fröhlich at reading the indictment. Merry once again describes the moment of the collision, the force of the impact. He talks about the car of the 69-year-old, who flew through the air and turned around on its own axis.

The son of accident victim Warshitsky looks tense and looks constantly in the hall 500 to Hamdi H. This does not return the look. In his first trial he had begged Maximilian Warshitsky in tears for forgiveness. Now the defendant avoids even looking at the 37-year-old.

"Important that you get the maximum penalty"

For about two and a half years, the defendants are in custody. Both will be silent in court, announcing their defenders outside the hall. Hamdi H. wanted to become a car mechatronics engineer. It has not collapsed, most recently he was unemployed. Marvin N. also had little success in his professional life: after his time with the German Armed Forces, he worked for a security firm. When asked how much the length of the procedure weighs on his client, attorney Elfferding says: Marvin N. had looked amazingly calm on him that day. "He seems to have very good nerves."

Maximilian Warshitsky looks a bit more relaxed in front of the hall door. He has no desire for revenge against the defendants, he says, also no hatred. He has learned a lot about the legal system in recent years. If the court came to the conclusion that the two were not to be convicted of murder, then he could live with it - if the penalty was fully exhausted.

"It's important for me that they get the maximum penalty for their crime," says Warshitsky. "But the individual case has to be considered." He also says, "For me personally, it will remain a murder. We will have to wait and see how the court will judge it legally."

After only ten minutes ends this first trial day, a total of 20 days of trial, the court has been scheduled so far. Maximilian Warshitsky wants to be present at each one.