Alexander Klingberg, spokesman for the public prosecutor's office, explained on request that his office had filed the appeal as a precautionary measure in order to meet the deadline. The deadline is one week after the oral pronouncement of the verdict. Once it has been served in writing, the public prosecutor's office has four weeks to justify the appeal.

Sense of piety of passers-by violated

The prosecution's representative, Florian Geßler, had demanded two and a half years imprisonment for the 39-year-old, also because the sense of piety of the passers-by had been violated, who had found the head in front of the court door and reacted shocked. Geßler reacted somewhat surprised that the 11th Grand Criminal Chamber cancelled the arrest warrant against the accused because further pre-trial detention was no longer proportionate. The man had been in Cologne prison since 29 June 2022.

It was not known on Tuesday what the public prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe would bring before the court. A possible point of attack to challenge the verdict could be that the judges could not prove with absolute certainty that the defendant himself had cut off the head of his buddy who died of tuberculosis. It could also have been someone else, according to the chamber.

Although there was much to suggest that the Moroccan was the perpetrator, for example a tiny splash of blood on his shoe, a cutting tool had not been found. Immediately after the head was found, the homeless man told the police that he had left it on the stairs. However, he did not say a word during the trial.

Should the BGH deal with the appeal, it will not re-enter the evidence, but will examine whether the judgement was legally correct and properly reached. If the appeal is accepted, another chamber of the Bonn Regional Court will have to deal with the matter.

(Original text: Johannes Lettmann; Translation: Mareike Graepel)