Trial in Feldkirch

Death threats against former boss

The Croatian pleaded guilty to only part of the charges before the regional court.(Bild: Chantall Dorn)

A chef took revenge for bullying and dismissal with dangerous threats and serious coercion via WhatsApp. This has now brought the Croatian to the regional court in Feldkirch.

The 41-year-old Croatian seems to have his very own way of dealing with problems. He has seven previous convictions in his home country and three in Germany. Now he also has an entry in the Austrian criminal register for dangerous threats and serious coercion. The background: Because he didn't get on with his work colleagues, the trained chef lost his job at a restaurant in Bregenz last summer. In a drunken stupor, the accused vented his frustration by threatening an ex-colleague and his now ex-boss via WhatsApp. "It's you or me. You started it. One will die," he writes. He threatens the ex-boss, whom he calls a "bastard", with "I'll kill you and burn down your restaurant!"

The restaurateur presses charges and proceedings are initiated. Meanwhile, the accused Croatian travels to Tyrol via Switzerland and Germany and takes a new job as a chef in Kufstein. But even there, things only went well for a while. When his notice flutters through the door in April, he is thrown out of the staff accommodation and the boss confronts him with wage deductions, the accused does exactly what he obviously does best - threaten.

"Believe me, you're dead tonight. I'm going to kill you for what you've done. I'll show you how crazy I am. My wages or jail time. Now you have to pay me 10,000 euros!" he writes on WhatsApp. The Croatian is taken into custody.

After the accused threatened not only his former boss in Vorarlberg, but also his boss in Tyrol, he was remanded in custody. From there he went straight to the courthouse.(Bild: Chantall Dorn)

At the Feldkirch regional court, the 41-year-old pleaded guilty to only some of the charges. "I was drunk. I would never have put the threats into action," he says, justifying his behavior at the time. A poor explanation for Judge Silke Sandholzer. "You yourself admitted that you wrote the messages. So you were well aware that you were frightening the victims." Due to the large number of threatening messages, the Ms. Rat assumes that the threats were death threats and sentences the defendant to a partial prison sentence of nine months. The sentence is not final.