https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/men...-gericht-toeten-ist-eine-gute-sache-li.383579
In room 701 of the Moabit Criminal Court at around 11 a.m., everyone present audibly held their breath. The 24-year-old defendant had actually just said: “Killing is a good thing.” He said this during an interrogation by the Berlin police with two officers and an interpreter. The recording will be played again on Tuesday on the large screen for visitors and those involved in the process. The accused admits to the charge of stabbing a taxi driver in Berlin right at the beginning of the recording.
In the early morning of April 6 this year, Maundy Thursday, shortly before Easter, the 49-year-old taxi driver was found seriously injured by a passer-by in Grunewald. He immediately provided first aid, but the taxi driver died in the hospital before noon. In addition to the family, many Berlin taxi drivers came to the funeral service for the father of a 14-year-old son and a 22-year-old daughter in the Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin-Neukölln.
Even before the accused says the terrible sentence about the killing, he talks about his escape from Tunisia in 2011. He was only 13 years old when he arrived on Lampedusa in Italy with distant relatives. He hasn’t seen them since. Via France he came to Belgium, where he lived until the beginning of the year.
In order to be able to possibly explain the accused’s “extraordinary attitude” towards human life, the officials ask about the background to his escape as a seventh grader and whether he was a victim of violence in Tunisia. For both questions, the accused stated that the answers were too private.
Sitting silently on the glass dock, the suspected perpetrator also watches himself testify in the video on Tuesday morning. His defense attorney had said her client did not want to testify for the time being. He has confessed to the crime several times. Later in the recording, the accused reports that he boarded the train in Liege. His actual destination was Denmark, on the way to Oslo, Norway. The accused had killed a woman in Belgium two days earlier.
When changing trains on the way to Berlin, the accused said he had already tried to find someone at a train station between 4 and 5 a.m. on the morning of April 6. The last time he ate was at 12 noon the previous day. “When I got out, I was hungry,” he says, “I wanted to take someone’s money, kill him.” However, he didn’t find anyone on the streets, although “everyone” was an option. He was too proud to ask for money or food on the train.
In the video, the interrogating officers assumed that the alleged perpetrator got “a kick” from the killing. Finally, he declared that he had stolen the new shoes he was wearing when he was arrested in Flensburg from a Lidl. Why didn’t he steal bananas or other groceries from Lidl, asks an official, instead of killing someone? The accused says: “If you want something, you have to kill.”
The taxi driver’s children and his sister are joint plaintiffs in the process. One of her lawyers says on the sidelines of the hearing: “This act is what makes it happen out of nowhere, out of absolute coincidence, so many questions arise.” After reading out the indictment, the court gave the legal notice of the accommodation of the accused in a psychiatric hospital.
The woman in Belgium and the Berlin taxi driver were murdered with the same knife. The suspect said he had this ready in his jacket pocket when the taxi driver took him to Brahmstrasse in Berlin-Grunewald. He had already looked for the place on the map on the train because of the large green area. The two communicated in English. In the video, he says, “I’m waiting for him to stop to kill him.” Then he recounts the gruesome details of the murder.
He found his way to violence in Belgium, at least that’s what he claims. There the 24-year-old sold cocaine for a long time, he said: “This way is surrounded by murderers.” For him, it follows that killing is “a good thing thing.” He chose this path until he died. When asked if he would continue to kill, he says, “Now I’m in prison, I think I’ll sit it out.”
Only towards the end of the video does he describe the moment when the taxi driver left the car and he was alone in the car. He only found ten euros. When asked if he was satisfied with it, he said: “It was enough to fill my stomach and continue driving.” With the money he bought chips and a Capri Sun. The trial continues on September 5, and the verdict is set for September 29.
In room 701 of the Moabit Criminal Court at around 11 a.m., everyone present audibly held their breath. The 24-year-old defendant had actually just said: “Killing is a good thing.” He said this during an interrogation by the Berlin police with two officers and an interpreter. The recording will be played again on Tuesday on the large screen for visitors and those involved in the process. The accused admits to the charge of stabbing a taxi driver in Berlin right at the beginning of the recording.
In the early morning of April 6 this year, Maundy Thursday, shortly before Easter, the 49-year-old taxi driver was found seriously injured by a passer-by in Grunewald. He immediately provided first aid, but the taxi driver died in the hospital before noon. In addition to the family, many Berlin taxi drivers came to the funeral service for the father of a 14-year-old son and a 22-year-old daughter in the Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin-Neukölln.
Even before the accused says the terrible sentence about the killing, he talks about his escape from Tunisia in 2011. He was only 13 years old when he arrived on Lampedusa in Italy with distant relatives. He hasn’t seen them since. Via France he came to Belgium, where he lived until the beginning of the year.
In order to be able to possibly explain the accused’s “extraordinary attitude” towards human life, the officials ask about the background to his escape as a seventh grader and whether he was a victim of violence in Tunisia. For both questions, the accused stated that the answers were too private.
Sitting silently on the glass dock, the suspected perpetrator also watches himself testify in the video on Tuesday morning. His defense attorney had said her client did not want to testify for the time being. He has confessed to the crime several times. Later in the recording, the accused reports that he boarded the train in Liege. His actual destination was Denmark, on the way to Oslo, Norway. The accused had killed a woman in Belgium two days earlier.
When changing trains on the way to Berlin, the accused said he had already tried to find someone at a train station between 4 and 5 a.m. on the morning of April 6. The last time he ate was at 12 noon the previous day. “When I got out, I was hungry,” he says, “I wanted to take someone’s money, kill him.” However, he didn’t find anyone on the streets, although “everyone” was an option. He was too proud to ask for money or food on the train.
In the video, the interrogating officers assumed that the alleged perpetrator got “a kick” from the killing. Finally, he declared that he had stolen the new shoes he was wearing when he was arrested in Flensburg from a Lidl. Why didn’t he steal bananas or other groceries from Lidl, asks an official, instead of killing someone? The accused says: “If you want something, you have to kill.”
The taxi driver’s children and his sister are joint plaintiffs in the process. One of her lawyers says on the sidelines of the hearing: “This act is what makes it happen out of nowhere, out of absolute coincidence, so many questions arise.” After reading out the indictment, the court gave the legal notice of the accommodation of the accused in a psychiatric hospital.
The woman in Belgium and the Berlin taxi driver were murdered with the same knife. The suspect said he had this ready in his jacket pocket when the taxi driver took him to Brahmstrasse in Berlin-Grunewald. He had already looked for the place on the map on the train because of the large green area. The two communicated in English. In the video, he says, “I’m waiting for him to stop to kill him.” Then he recounts the gruesome details of the murder.
He found his way to violence in Belgium, at least that’s what he claims. There the 24-year-old sold cocaine for a long time, he said: “This way is surrounded by murderers.” For him, it follows that killing is “a good thing thing.” He chose this path until he died. When asked if he would continue to kill, he says, “Now I’m in prison, I think I’ll sit it out.”
Only towards the end of the video does he describe the moment when the taxi driver left the car and he was alone in the car. He only found ten euros. When asked if he was satisfied with it, he said: “It was enough to fill my stomach and continue driving.” With the money he bought chips and a Capri Sun. The trial continues on September 5, and the verdict is set for September 29.
