2024-01-04 12:25:48
The Cologne regional court sentenced Thomas Drach to 15 years in prison on Thursday for robbery and attempted murder. The chamber also imposed subsequent preventive detention on the Reemtsma kidnapper. This means that Drach will be transferred to the penal system following serving his sentence and will continue to sit behind bars there. With its verdict, the court agreed with the public prosecutor’s request.
The court found it proven that Drach committed three robberies on cash-in-transit vehicles in Cologne and Frankfurt am Main in 2018 and 2019. According to the verdict, in two of the crimes he fired shots at the money messengers, and the two men suffered serious injuries. Drach might not be found to have committed an attack in Limburg, Hesse, which was also accused. Drach had always denied all allegations and his defense lawyers had requested his acquittal. The verdict on the 100th day of the trial ended an almost two-year mammoth trial that took place under high security precautions.
In 1996, the German kidnapped the heir to the Hamburg Reemtsma tobacco dynasty, Jan Philipp Reemtsma, and released him for a ransom. Since then, Drach has been considered one of the most dangerous criminals in Germany. Drach’s kidnappers held the heir to the tobacco dynasty captive for around a month before Reemtsma was released in return for a double-digit million ransom. Drach was sentenced to 14 years and six months in prison for the crime in 2000. While he was still in prison, he was once more convicted of attempted incitement to blackmail. He was released in October 2013.
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