"Seven years in prison for brutal rape in Portugal
Braunschweig. 14 years ago, a 72 year old was attacked in her home. The 43 year old suspect is pleading not guilty in the trial taking place in Braunschweig.
The suspect is talking of a "trial of arbitrariness", his lawyer demands to release the suspect because of the benefit of the doubt. The regional court of Braunschweig on the other hand is sure that the suspect is guilty.
14 years ago - in September 2005 - the suspect, who had his last residence near Braunschweig, is accused to have robbed, shackled, hit, raped and stolen from a 72 year old American woman in her home in Portugal.
In the verdict, the regional court agrees with the Departement of public prosecution: The 43 year old is sentenced to serve seven years in prison for brutal rape and robbery.
This seven years include a former sentence of a year and nine months given by the court of Niebüll in Schleswig-Holstein for Marihuana dealing and drug trafficking on Sylt.
Both trials are now investigating the question, if the suspect is protected by the "Spezialitätsgrundsatz": Meaning that he can only be charged for the crime because of which he was transfered from Portugal to Germany.
The regional court of Braunschweig is arguing that the protection of the "Spezialitätsgrundsatz" is not longer valid, because the suspect stayed in Italy after his deportation from Portugal. The 43 year old does not share this opinion: "I am still protected by the Spezialitätsgrundsatz. They should not have been able to arrest me in Italy."
The definitive verdict will be given by the Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Supreme Court).
The rape trial is not effected by the verdict of the German Federal Supreme Court.
The emigrant, who made his living in Portugal with various part-time jobs, lived in a house close to the home of the victim when the crime took place. He depictes himself as a helpful man with changing relationships and claims to have nothing in common with the masked robber of September 2005 who seemed to enjoy hitting and torturing his victim with a bendable metal object.
But how did a body hair of the suspect end up on the crime scene? The Departement of public prosecution Claims the hair to be strong and valid evidence. The suspect has other ideas of how the hair ended up there: While petting the victims cat in front of the house or a meeting in the Supermarket or cafe, the hair could have been transported to the house by chance.
And then it ended up on the same bed sheet on the bed used during the rape? That's too far fetched for the regional court - as an DNA expert confirmed during the trial. She said it is possible, but very unlikely.
The investigators found the hair early on, but could not connect it to the suspect right away, years after the unsolved crime took place. Acquaintances of the suspect mentioned video tapes during the iterrogation of the police. This tapes showed the suspect in apparenty real rape scenes.
The video tapes did never show up, it's said that they don't exist anymore. Did the former acquaintances made them up to come to good terms with the police? The lawyer of the suspect points out that there are a lot of obections in the statements, "the statements are just not believeable."
The Departement of public prosecution claims the statements to be valid. "The police started investigating because they reported the rape of an older woman.", the judge explains. The Police started looking into crimes in Portugal which matched the description the two made. The description matched the case of the raped 72 year old.
Regarding all given evidence, the Departement of public prosecution finds the suspect to be guilty."
Sieben Jahre Haft wegen brutaler Vergewaltigung in Portugal - Braunschweiger Zeitung
