In the Darmstadt trial of the shooting in Kranichstein last year, the public prosecutor's office is demanding long prison sentences. The prosecutor, Ansgar Martinsohn, regards the allegation of attempted manslaughter and dangerous bodily harm as proven for all four defendants. The German citizens belong to one family and have allegedly attacked four men from another family. The two families with roots in Bosnia are related by marriage, but are at odds. On May 7, 2020, the dispute escalated on Parkstrasse in the Kranichstein district in front of numerous neighbors and passers-by. The public prosecutor is convinced that 69-year-old Vehbija S., father of one family, fired two shots each at two sons of the other family.The prosecutor is calling for him to be sentenced to eleven years and two months in prison.
Jan Schiefenhövel
Freelance author in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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The other three defendants are children of Vehbija S. and, according to the prosecutor, participated in the crime by attacking the other family.
They wouldn't have stopped her father from shooting.
The attempted manslaughter was committed jointly, even if only one of the four had the gun in hand.
The prosecution calls for a prison sentence of six years and three months for the 28-year-old Rabin S. and three years and four months for his brother, the 24-year-old Barbaros S.
For the 37-year-old daughter Lidija H., the prosecution considers a sentence of three years and ten months to be appropriate.
An escalated family dispute
The argument between the two families revolved around their four children. Her husband, the father of the children, is 36 year old Nedzad H., son of the second family. In a custody dispute it had been determined that the children were not allowed to be brought to the H. family, as Martinsohn explained. Nedzad H. disregarded this and took the offspring with him to his relatives. Thereupon the relatives of Lidija H. wanted to "make an example".
Right at the beginning of the meeting on Parkstrasse, in front of the S. family's house, the dispute escalated. Lidija H. pulled a knife. The members of the H. family withdrew and were followed by the attackers more than 200 meters across Parkstrasse, the prosecutor said. This suggests that the aggression came from the S. family. The head of the family Vehbija S. tried to shoot the father of the other family, the 61-year-old Pinjo H. However, no shot was released because the weapon was not fully loaded. A little later, Vehbija S. fired at Pinjo H's sons, Fadil H. and Senad H., who were injured in the upper body. In the second shot at the latter, the victim was lying on the ground, which equates to an "execution". Rabin S. had a telescopic baton,Barbaros attacked with a crowbar, her brother-in-law Nedzad H. and her father-in-law Pinjo H. were injured.
On the other hand, the defense lawyer for Vehbija S., Davut Yildiz, said that his client only had a firearm with him because he felt threatened by the other family because of the dispute over the children. The four men of the H. family came to Kranichstein “not with peaceful intent”. In the dispute, Vehbija S. "stupidly lost control". However, he did not shoot Pinjo H. and only wanted to "incapacitate" his two sons with the shots, but did not want to kill them. He did not empty his magazine. Therefore, he had resigned from the attempt to kill and could only be punished for serious bodily harm. The defense lawyer requested a seven-year sentence for the main defendant.