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Life imprisonment in Carinthian cold case murder

Life imprisonment in Carinthian cold case murder

Image: VOLKER Weihbold

The Moroccan citizen, who has lived mostly in Italy since 2001, was accused of killing a 49-year-old Italian woman in 2008. Her body was found in the Völkermarkter Stadtwald. The defendant had a relationship with the woman. Five of the eight jurors found guilt proven.

The partially burned, undressed body of the woman was found in October 2008 in the Völkermarkt city forest. The 49-year-old was beaten, choked and shot. The perpetrator had tried to set fire to the corpse and cover up the traces with fire accelerant. It took years for the body to be identified. A trace of DNA on her body led to the accused in 2021, when he was in custody in Italy for drug-related offences. The trial was scheduled for two days, and the verdict was surprisingly pronounced on Tuesday. Defense attorney Nikolaus Rast filed an appeal and a nullity complaint, so the judgment was not final.

Prosecutor speaks of “overkill”

Prosecutor Sandra Agnoli had spoken of a so-called “overkill” in the indictment in view of the violent violence in the crime and meant: “It was clearly a relationship act.” The accused did everything to conceal the identity of the dead because suspicion would have fallen on him, her boyfriend, first, the prosecutor said. She showed the jury photos of the body. “You must know what you are judging today.”

A medical expert testified that based on the quality of the defendant’s DNA on the body, it was most likely that the defendant had sexual intercourse with the victim within 24 hours of the victim’s death.

Defense Attorney: “Circumstantial Trial”

Defender Nikolaus Rast spoke of a circumstantial process. The DNA trace does match his client, but it was not a real relationship. His client repeatedly met the woman to have sexual intercourse with her. That’s why he didn’t look for her after she disappeared. The DNA trace could also come from a meeting days before the woman’s death. According to the defender, others could be considered as perpetrators. The dead woman had gambling debts, so she could have killed her or been the victim of a serial killer who was around at the time. His client is not a good person, has many criminal records, but is innocent in this case. He lied in all interrogations during the investigation and is now exercising his right not to provide any information.

Sister of the dead as a witness

The sister of the dead testified as a witness. She had identified the defendant, whom she had met as a friend of her widowed sister. She is still absolutely certain today that the accused was her sister’s boyfriend at the time. In the summer of 2008, she told her that her boyfriend was more in love with her than she was with him, and that she was considering ending the relationship. He supported her financially, but was also jealous. The accused contacted her several times and asked her to convince her sister to have a relationship with him. He wanted more from her, even wanted to marry her. Her sister never said she was in trouble because of gambling debts or anything like that, but there was talk of money worries. The sister had had a bad premonition, she said she wanted to be cremated and buried with her deceased husband if anything happened to her, the witness said.

No longer available

When she was no longer able to reach her sister in the fall of 2008, at some point a message came from her cell phone that she wanted to change her life and was happy. The sister still did not take off. Because the mother could not be reassured, a missing person’s report was finally made. The police did not take this seriously. She would not have thought at the time that the defendant could have done something to her sister.

The sister’s partner was able to report that the later victim had turned off his mobile phone all day during a visit to have peace from her boyfriend, as she noticed. After her disappearance, there were several theories in the family as to what could have happened – on the one hand that her boyfriend did something to her, on the other hand that it could have been someone from the gambling environment.

Investigator: “Relationship Offense”

One of the Austrian investigators said on the witness stand that it was undoubtedly an act of a relationship and not a mafia murder. The victim sold betting slips for the latter. When the mafia kills someone, they try to make a visible example. In the specific case, the perpetrator had expended a lot of energy to conceal the identity of the victim, which had been successful for a long time. This is an indication of a close relationship that would drop the suspicion of the perpetrator.

Source: Nachrichten

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