The 34-year-old was convicted of aggravated robbery. The judgment of a jury is not final.
Under renewed strict security precautions – special forces from the prison guards and the protection of the constitution were present, the wing in front of the courtroom was cordoned off and a ban on photography and filming was imposed – a trial once morest a suspected mafioso ended on Friday at the Vienna Regional Court. The 34-year-old was sentenced to eleven years in prison for aggravated robbery. The judgment of a jury is not final.
The man is said to be a leading member of a Serbian-Montenegrin mafia gang that deals in drugs on a large scale in Austria. According to the first-instance verdict, on December 28, 2019, he and six other gang members in a garage in the federal capital of another group of criminals used violence to take 13 kilograms of cocaine and 106,000 euros. “We have no doubt that the accused was there,” the presiding judge stated in the verdict.
Regarding the crime in question, she said: “It is not an everyday case to be confronted with such brutality”. The accused had “disrespectfully treated the lives of others”, which, in addition to the clouded previous life and the rapid relapse, was considered to be aggravating when determining the sentence.
Notice of nullity and appeal lodged
Defense attorney Werner Tomanek immediately lodged a nullity complaint and appeal once morest the verdict. The prosecutor did not provide any explanation for the time being.
According to the findings of the security authorities, the accused’s gang had pretended to want to buy cocaine from another group of criminals in Vienna. A warehouse was rented specifically for this purpose. When two men from the other group appeared at the handover site, the accused and his accomplices were already waiting for them behind mattresses, according to the judgment that is not yet final, and then beat them to the ground with brute force and kicked them. One of the two was also stabbed in the back with a knife, seriously injuring the man.
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