Football “procedure unfair”
Verdict in the trial of Jérôme Boateng overturned
As of: 3:58 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Court overturns verdict against football star
The Bavarian Supreme Court has overturned Jérôme Boateng’s conviction for assault and insult. It upheld the appeal by the ex-national football player and also that of the public prosecutor and co-plaintiffs and referred the proceedings to the Munich Regional Court.
The trial against soccer world champion Jérôme Boateng for violent attacks on his ex-girlfriend is developing into a never-ending story. Now the third court has ruled – there is no end to the legal dispute in sight.
The Bavarian Supreme Court has overturned Jérôme Boateng’s conviction for assault and insult. It upheld the appeal by the ex-national soccer player and also that of the public prosecutor and co-plaintiff on Thursday and referred the proceedings back to the Munich I Regional Court. The process must now be restarted there.
Boateng’s lawyer Leonard Walischewski had previously called for the verdict from last October to be overturned. “The process was shockingly unfair,” he said. “The defendant Boateng was already finally convicted before the appeal process even began.”
At that time, Boateng, now 35 years old, was sentenced in the second instance to a fine of 120 daily rates of 10,000 euros each for attacks on his ex-girlfriend on a Caribbean vacation – a total of 1.2 million euros.
Leonhard Walischewski (2nd from left), lawyer Boateng, in the courtroom
Source: dpa/Peter Kneffel
Boateng’s right to a fair trial was violated at the time, criticized Walischewski. “The presiding judge was not neutral, he was not distant,” said the lawyer. Above all, he criticized the fact that the judge himself was involved in rejecting an application for bias against himself. The court on Thursday also saw this as a decisive reason to overturn the verdict “in its entirety”.
Boateng’s lawyer rails against the judge
At the time, before the application for bias, the chairman emphasized that further evidence submitted by Boateng and his defense lawyers could have a negative impact on a punishment. Boateng’s lawyer accused the judge of “unprocedural and arbitrary behavior” in his plea on Thursday. “The chairman didn’t want to clarify.”
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The public prosecutor’s office and the co-prosecution also appealed against the verdict because they had demanded a conviction for grievous bodily harm and thus a harsher punishment. The Bavarian Supreme Court also upheld their appeal.
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The court’s decision makes an already extremely lengthy legal dispute even longer. The Munich District Court had already imposed a higher fine on Boateng in 2021, but the number of daily rates was only half as high – 60 daily rates of 30,000 euros each, a total of 1.8 million euros. Those convicted of more than 90 daily rates are considered to have a criminal record.
Boateng, who played for the German national team and FC Bayern Munich for a long time, was farewelled by his most recent club, the French first division football club Olympique Lyon, in June and is currently without a club.
2023-09-21 13:58:11
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