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Cordoned off crime scene in a cemetery in Altbach (in June 2023)
Photo: Christoph Schmidt / dpa
In the trial surrounding a hand grenade attack on a mourning community in Altbach near Esslingen, a man was sentenced to twelve years in prison on Wednesday.
The Stuttgart regional court found him guilty of throwing the grenade last June as part of a gang war that had been raging for a long time.
The public prosecutor and defense had demanded prison sentences of 13 and eleven years, among other things, for attempted murder.
The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The then 23-year-old is said to have carried out the attack because the mourning congregation was said to have included numerous supporters of the enemy group.
At least 15 people were injured, some seriously.
According to investigators, it was only by a stroke of luck that the grenade ricocheted off a branch and exploded away from the mourners.
“The story in Altbach could have been a horror scenario,” said the judge in his verdict.
"That's what you wanted." The defendant had said that the allegations were true.
The trial is only part of the legal investigation into the series of violence in the Stuttgart area.
In another trial relating to the hand grenade attack, five men are being tried who, together with others, are said to have tried to take revenge on the person who threw the grenade in Altbach.
They are accused, among other things, of attempted murder.
Further charges were recently filed in this case.
According to the investigators, the background is the feud that has been raging for many months.
According to the State Criminal Police Office, there have been 57 arrests so far.
kfr/dpa