Three young men aged 16, 17 and 20 had to appear in court in Linz on Wednesday for the fire in a police car in Linz-Ebelsberg in November of the previous year. Surprisingly, an 18-year-old joined the dock who is suspected of having obtained the petrol and was therefore subsequently included in the proceedings. All four pleaded guilty, after the opening arguments the public was closed.
According to the indictment, 40 to 50 young people met in Ebelsberg on November 14 to express their dissatisfaction with the corona measures. Apparently, following the call of their already convicted gang leader, they fired firecrackers to attract the police and then threw firecrackers and stones at police officers and their vehicles. The 16-year-old is said to have doused a police car with petrol and set it on fire. The petrol can was then set on fire, which the prosecutor said meant suppressing the evidence.
“Senseless Stupidity”
He stressed that the defendants had abused the right to freedom of expression and assembly to commit a criminal offence. They attended a gathering only to damage critical infrastructure. The oldest accused is said to have committed “senseless stupidity” before November 14, for which he was still in court on Wednesday. Because he was banned from entering Linz main station, he is said to have threatened a security employee there, and he is said to have been involved in property damage in a shopping center in Pasching (Linz-Land district). In addition, he is charged with attempted insurance fraud because he has repeatedly reported his mobile phone as stolen.
Her client has now understood that he made mistakes and “turned things around”. He drives out goods for a bakery. However, he only ran with the attack on the police car, she emphasized. The second accused was also described by his defense as a “passive participant”. He was “in a bad mood” on November 14th.
Dangerous group dynamics
The main suspect is the youngest of the defendants. The 16-year-old is said to have poured petrol from a can into a bottle and then poured it over the patrol car and set it on fire. However, as the public prosecutor emphasized, he had asked the girls passing by beforehand whether there was anyone in the car. The boy had “learned a great deal” from everything, the defense attorney asked for a lenient verdict. At the same time, he pointed out how dangerous group dynamics can be. In that case, she was “so toxic that an innocent person” got carried away to committing a crime.
The fourth defendant apparently got the petrol in a canister. Like the other three, according to their defense attorneys, he fully confessed, even if everyone was very afraid of reprisals from other gang members. Two of the accused have also been beaten because of their confession to the police. Those thugs were already convicted in January. After the opening arguments, the public was excluded from the trial until the verdict was announced. This is scheduled for early evening.
Source: Nachrichten
