In the trial surrounding the violent death of 15-year-old Anastasia from Salzgitter, the accused was sentenced to eight years in prison for murder. This was announced by a spokeswoman for the Braunschweig district court on Tuesday. The 14-year-old at the time of the crime was convicted under juvenile criminal law. The hearing was not public.
The youth was charged with treacherous murder. Together with a 13-year-old classmate, he is said to have suffocated the teenager on June 19 on an overgrown property in Salzgitter and hidden her body in a bush. The public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig accused him of having killed the girl “acting jointly with a person under criminal jurisdiction”.
As the German Press Agency learned from legal circles, the public prosecutor’s office had demanded a youth sentence of eight years and six months. The representatives of the accessory prosecutor wanted one year more.
The alleged accomplice was not yet of criminal age at the time of the crime and was placed in a psychiatric clinic shortly after the crime with the consent of his parents. He is now 14 years old.
The defendant’s defense announced that it would have the verdict checked. “We have already appealed against the verdict,” said lawyer Thilo Schäck. According to his own statements, the defense attorney had demanded an acquittal during the proceedings and argued that the accused had not committed the crime. Schäck said about the prison sentence. “This is of course a black day for my client, including for his parents.”
After the verdict, the private prosecutor demands a review of the age of criminal responsibility. In this specific case, it is unbearable to state that a 13-year-old boy is considered not to be guilty and cannot be prosecuted for the alleged crime, said lawyer Steffen Hörning. “It’s difficult to deal with,” said Hörning. He called on the legislature to think about it with a larger group of experts. A daily look at life shows that 12 or 13 year olds can no longer be compared in their mental and moral maturity with 12 or 13 year olds 40 or 50 years ago.
According to German law, children under the age of 14 are not yet of criminal responsibility. From the age of 14, young people are held responsible for their crimes under certain conditions and – as in this case – sentenced according to juvenile criminal law.
