Three teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16, who had beaten two of the accused after a confession, were on trial on Friday for aggravated assault and attempted coercion. They served seven months’ suspended sentences and six months’ suspended sentences, respectively, for assault and coercion. The three made a confession during the hearing at the Linz Regional Court. With their action they wanted to silence the other two young people.
The two 16-year-old Austrians and the 14-year-old Russian citizen had pushed the two youths who are said to have set fire to the police car against a wall in a tram underpass on November 27 and injured their bodies with punches and kicks, the judge said from the police interrogation record. One of the 16-year-olds made a video of the incident and is said to have threatened that they would be beaten again if they named the “Ebelsberg people”. The second 16-year-old and the 14-year-old, who was described by his defense attorney as the “last link in the chain” and who, unlike the other two, had already confessed to the first police questioning, actually struck.
“Did they hit”
When the judge asked why the attack had taken place, the 16-year-old, who threatened the two arsonists, said: “I didn’t want my friends to be sitting here like me.” He wants to take the punishment, but “not involve any people.” The 14-year-old said succinctly: “We just beat them”, but he had nothing to do with the coercion.
Inconsistencies came to light in the process insofar as the 16-year-old thug originally claimed to the juvenile court helper that the fists had been thrown for a completely different reason: he had had a private problem with one of the two beatings, since he had hit a girl and the 16-year-old had to think of his little sister. Today he no longer knows why he said that at the time. Referring to the fact, he added: “I’m sure I regret it”. And: “I didn’t think about it, I thought the two were so intimidated that they wouldn’t betray me anyway.”
Judge: “Much criminal energy”
“Beating up someone so that they don’t say anything to the police, that’s so much criminal energy that it makes you shudder,” said the judge when explaining the sentence. She therefore hopes that the detention that has been served will have an effect. As a mitigating factor for the final verdict, she rated the confession of the accused as well as their irreproachable character and that it partly remained an attempt.
With the approximately one-month pre-trial detention, the two older ones have already served the unconditional part of their sentence. The six-month conditional detention is suspended for three years on probation, the same applies to the six months of the 14-year-old. In addition, they have to pay 297 euros for new glasses and compensation for pain and suffering of 500 euros for one of the victims.
The crime is related to the one in which a police car caught fire in the Ebelsberg district of Linz on November 14 while the officers were checking compliance with the Corona rules. Two 16-year-olds and a 20-year-old were identified as the direct perpetrators. The ringleader of the gang was also arrested shortly before Christmas. Apparently, out of dissatisfaction with the Corona measures, he wanted to attack the Linz-Ebelsberg police station with a Molotov cocktail on New Year’s Eve. The head of the gang and the suspected arsonists are brought before the court separately.
Source: Nachrichten
