The hand grenade attack on a mourning community in Altbach is just one chapter in the long history of the bloody feud between rival groups in the greater Stuttgart area. But it is the case that has attracted the most attention so far.
In the trial against the alleged thrower of the grenade, the public prosecutor’s office and defense demanded long prison sentences, and now the regional court wants to hand down the verdict. The public prosecutor’s office accuses the Iranian citizen of, among other things, attempted murder.
The 23-year-old at the time of the crime is said to have thrown the hand grenade on June 9th at the mourning community, which was said to have included numerous supporters of the rival group. At least 15 people were injured, some seriously. According to investigators, it was only by a stroke of luck that the grenade ricocheted off a branch, landed 30 meters away from the mourners and exploded.
While the prosecution requested a prison sentence of 13 years, the defense pleaded for eleven years imprisonment. The defendant had informed through his defense attorney that the accusation was correct.
Further trials regarding Altbach are ongoing
However, the regional court’s ruling will not end the legal investigation into the hand grenade attack in the Neckar Valley. In addition to the trial against the alleged thrower, there are also proceedings against five young men who, together with others, are said to have tried to take revenge on the alleged thrower of the grenade after the explosion. They are accused, among other things, of attempted manslaughter, attempted and grievous bodily harm, and resistance to emergency services. Further charges were recently filed in this case.
The group of 10 to 15 people is said to have caught the suspected grenade thrower as he was fleeing, dragged him out of a taxi and beat him up as if he were intoxicated. Until the police arrived, they beat and kicked him and, according to the prosecutor, did not let go of him when paramedics tried to help.
Bloody gang war in the Stuttgart area
According to the investigators, the background to the crime is a gang war that has been raging around Stuttgart for many months. The suspected grenade thrower is said to belong to a gang from the Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and Göppingen area; the mourning community was close to another group from the Esslingen area.
People were repeatedly shot at during the feud. According to the State Criminal Police Office (LKA), there have been 57 arrests so far. According to the Interior Ministry and LKA, the total of around 550 followers and supporters are mainly young men who are already known to the police. “Some of them have a migrant background, and the core of the groups also includes several people of Kurdish ethnicity,” explained State Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU).
According to investigators, it is unclear why the two groups joined forces and why they are fighting each other so bloodily. It’s not about family clans or classic gang crime. Rather, the violence escalated after mostly mutual insults to honor, it was about territorial claims to power and the motto “Crime as a Lifestyle”, with which many in the groups strongly identified.
