On August 27, 2021, Hatem B. (46) was shot in front of this bakery. The victim succumbed to severe injuries at the scene Photo: spreepicture
From BZ/dpa
Almost a year after the fatal shooting of a 46-year-old man in front of a bakery in Berlin-Wedding, the accused has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Berlin district court found the 49-year-old man guilty of murder, a court spokeswoman said on Friday. The prosecution assumed that the man wanted revenge on the victim’s family. The reason was a fatal stabbing three months earlier, in which a nephew of the accused died.
According to investigations, the 46-year-old victim was unsuspectingly sitting with acquaintances in front of a bakery on Reinickendorfer Straße on August 27, 2021 at around 7:35 p.m. when the attacker approached. The perpetrator fired four shots from a distance of two meters. The 46-year-old was hit in the neck, among other things. He died at the scene of the crime.
Murder victim Hatem B. (46) with his son Elias (16), who is in prison for manslaughter Photo: Private
According to the indictment, the shots were caused by the violent death of a nephew of the accused. The 49-year-old with German and Iraqi citizenship assumed that the son of the attacked Tunisian had killed the 18-year-old in May 2021.
The accused was convinced that his family’s injured honor “could only be restored by the killing of a member of the family of the suspected perpetrator,” according to the prosecution. He knew that the 46-year-old was not to blame for the 18-year-old’s death.
people in court
The accused had been in custody since October. In February 2022, a youth criminal division of the district court imposed a youth sentence of five years and nine months on the son of the man who was shot for manslaughter. He is said to have pulled a knife in a park when two large groups got into an argument. The verdict against the 16-year-old at the time of the crime is not yet final.
The 49-year-old was initially silent at the beginning of the process three and a half months ago. Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence. The defense pleaded for acquittal. The verdict is not yet legally binding.