In his appeal process for the allegation of bodily harm, former national soccer player Jérôme Boateng refused to testify. "He denies criminal activity, but otherwise will not comment on the matter," said his lawyer on Thursday before the Munich District Court I. Boateng's defense attorneys emphasized that their client was "entitled to, especially against the background of extensive reporting about him in the run-up to the process a fair trial".

Boateng, who became soccer world champion with the German national team in Brazil in 2014, had previously rejected a court proposal for an agreement. He couldn't "reconcile that with his conscience". Even if the negotiation will certainly be "exhausting and lengthy", Boateng does not want to accept the offer of an agreement, the lawyers said.

The court had suggested that the process be ended "as unproblematicly as possible and without great effort", but still "appropriately". In this way you can save yourself a "comprehensive and unpleasant procedure," said judge Andreas Forstner. He had therefore suggested to those involved in the process that they largely withdraw the appeal and only take action against the legal consequences. Then it would no longer have been about the accusation, but only about the amount of the penalty.

New evidence pending

The district court had sentenced Boateng to a fine of 1.8 million euros for bodily harm last year. The public prosecutor had demanded a fine and a suspended sentence, while Boateng's defense attorney at the time demanded an acquittal. Judge Forstner emphasized right at the beginning of the appeal hearing that he considered the verdict from the first instance to be well founded.

Because no such agreement was reached, a new hearing of evidence is on the agenda. The ex-girlfriend Boatengs, who appears in the proceedings as a joint plaintiff and described in court how the football star is said to have attacked her on a Caribbean vacation in 2018, started things off.

"Then he pulled me a bit forward by the hair," she said. He put his thumb in her eye, bit her in the head and punched her flank. She also emphasized that it was not the first attack of this kind in the eleven-year "on-off relationship" between her and Boateng. She was "used to the fact that there were violent attacks, that it was toxic". Boateng kept shaking his head when his ex-girlfriend testified.