The trial against a 36-year-old, who is accused of seven violent assaults, began on Tuesday at the Berlin district court. In one case, the man is said to have kicked a 70-year-old woman in a residential building and seriously injured her. In another act, he is said to have hit a man in a cemetery in the Friedenau district.
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At the beginning of the trial, the defense attorney stated that her client would initially not comment on the allegations.
The accused is said to have repeatedly attacked other people from September 2020 to February 2022. The public prosecutor assumes that the 36-year-old was probably not or only partially responsible. The authority aims to place him in a psychiatric hospital.
The first witness, a 26-year-old, said the accused had attacked and choked her during an argument. She then obtained an injunction against the man, who was an acquaintance for her, under the Protection against Violence Act. “He didn’t comply, but he still showed up outside my apartment building,” she said. When he was in the house in July 2021, he kicked her neighbor. “She wanted to help me.” The then 70-year-old suffered a hip fracture.