Life imprisonment or acquittal - in the trial against a suspected triple murderer at the Rostock district court, the demands of the public prosecutor's office and the defense could not be further apart. The 3rd criminal division of the court must decide on the sentence. Today, on the 16th day of the trial, the verdict against the 27-year-old accused is to be announced. The allegations weigh heavily.

On February 7, 2022 in Rövershagen, he is said to have first shot his father, who was sleeping on the couch, four arrows in the head with a crossbow. Since he was not dead immediately, he is said to have stabbed him with a garden machete. According to the indictment, the father bled to death.

Was it insidious?

On the same day, the accused is said to have lured his sister into his parents' house and, under a pretext, caused her to kneel in the hallway, which was lined with pond liner and fleece, and put on earmuffs and opaque glasses. Then he is said to have shot her in the head with a crossbow and stabbed her in the chest with a machete.

On February 11, 2022, the 27-year-old is said to have picked up his mother at the train station after a work trip lasting several days and killed him in the same way as his sister. Three weeks later, according to the indictment, he buried the bodies in self-made coffins about ten kilometers away in a field near Roggentin near Rostock.

The accused insidiously and brutally wiped out his next of kin and acted coldly and without empathy, said senior public prosecutor Thomas Peters in his plea. "The death of the victims should definitely occur." During his police interrogation in March last year, the accused confessed to the crimes and stated "hatred of everyone" as the motive. In court, on the other hand, the 27-year-old has been silent since the trial began on November 15.

Defense attorney complains about the procedure in the event of an arrest

From the point of view of the defense attorney Beate Falkenberg, all statements and all evidence, expert opinions and witness statements should not have been introduced into the process. When she was arrested on March 30, 2022, her client was not properly instructed about his rights and his entitlement to a public defender, she justified the required ban on exploitation. For this reason, she had pleaded for acquittal last week.