3rd trial condition

The most exciting witness failed to provide any answers

Lawyer Andreas Mauhart with the 32-year-old defendant at one of the previous trials

(Bild: Pressefoto Scharinger)

The verdicts against a 33-year-old Czech woman in Ried/Innkreis were overturned twice. Most recently because of a requested relative from the defendant's old homeland. He came, but failed to provide the expected answers. A third verdict is expected on Monday.

Day two in the third round of the trial of a now 33-year-old Czech woman who allegedly drugged her husband with psychotropic drugs in goulash in St. Florian am Inn in the summer of 2022 and then tried to kill him with a box cutter. He narrowly survived and the wife was put on trial for attempted murder in Ried.

Supreme judges threw out the verdict
It is also known that the first verdict of the jury was overturned by the professional judges "due to error" - they had ruled for intentional grievous bodily harm - and the new case was referred back to the Ried Regional Court by the Supreme Court. This was because a witness, the defendant's nephew, was not heard as requested by the defense lawyer.

This relative also appeared at the trial on Wednesday and - like the defendant's daughter (16) before him - was to be heard in camera. However, like the 16-year-old, the important witness made use of the right to refuse to testify, to which close relatives are entitled, and remained silent to the questions.

All over again
The trial will continue on Thursday and must be conducted as if the other two hearings had not taken place. Police officers and expert witnesses will have their say again and on Monday, psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner will present her expert opinion for the third time. She had attested that the defendant, who accused her daughter, who was of criminal age at the time of the crime, of having made the life-threatening cut across her father's neck, had a "creative way of dealing with the truth". The verdict is expected on Monday.