Berlin prosecutors charge two men with murder over business-debt 'vigilante' killing
Berlin prosecutors accuse a 40-year-old and a 32-year-old of abducting and killing a 59-year-old man in Waidmannslust and burying his body in a forest in Brandenburg.
Symbolic image · Photo: A.Savin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Berlin prosecutors have charged two men, aged 32 and 40, with jointly committing murder. They are accused of attacking a 59-year-old businessman on April 23 in the Waidmannslust area of Reinickendorf, knocking him unconscious, tying him up and forcing him into a vehicle. According to the indictment, he died from blows to the head and neck.
The dispute allegedly centred on outstanding claims from a former business relationship. Investigators say the 40-year-old wanted to settle the financial row through vigilante justice and persuaded the younger man to help. The two are accused of burying the body the same day in woodland in Dallgow-Döberitz, west of Berlin.
Prosecutors allege the killing was treacherous and driven by base motives. Both suspects were arrested in May and remain in pretrial detention. A jury chamber at Berlin Regional Court I must now decide whether to send the case to trial; the men are presumed innocent until convicted.