Attempted murder trial

Truck driver stabbed boss and his father

A 56-year-old truck driver had to answer to a jury in Graz on Tuesday for two counts of attempted murder.

(Bild: APA/KARIN ZEHETLEITNER)

A 56-year-old Hungarian got into a violent argument with his employers at a rest stop on the A9, which escalated completely. The truck driver stabbed the men with a folding knife and the older man barely survived. The accused spoke of self-defense - "wanted to defend my honor".

A violent argument between a 56-year-old lorry driver and his boss and his father escalated completely in March and has now brought the Hungarian to court on two counts of attempted murder. In the course of a brawl at the Deutschfeistritz service station (Graz area) on the A9, he is said to have first stabbed the junior boss and then stabbed his father several times. He only just survived. 

The 56-year-old had been working as a driver for a Hungarian haulage company since January. "There were repeated disputes because the accused did not do his job properly and allegedly handled the truck carelessly," said public prosecutor Arnulf Rumpold. The hauliers also accused the driver of stealing diesel, among other things. 

Dispute at rest stop escalated
In March, the entrepreneurs therefore traveled from Hungary to Styria for a discussion. Because it was too dark at the meeting point in Zeltweg to inspect the damage to the truck, the men drove towards Hungary and then stopped at the Deutschfeistritz rest stop. It was there that things escalated disastrously. 

When the junior boss inspected the truck and complained about its desolate condition, a heated argument broke out between the men. Soon fists were flying. Suddenly, the 56-year-old took a folding knife out of his trouser pocket, "grabbed the victim by the testicles with his left hand and stabbed him in the right flank with his other hand", according to the public prosecutor. It should be noted from the execution of the stabbing that the accused was "battle-hardened" - he was a soldier in the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014. 

Victim almost died
The Hungarian then got the senior boss even worse: he stabbed him five times in the chest area. "So hard that almost the entire blade penetrated. As a result, one lung collapsed. The man would have died without immediate intensive medical care and emergency surgery," explained the prosecutor. His son may also have contributed to saving his life; he hit the attacker's head with a flashlight until he let go of his second victim. 

If I had wanted to kill them, I would have succeeded and stabbed them in the neck.

Der Angeklagte bestreitet die Tötungsabsicht

The accused finally fled with the truck and was arrested a short time later without resistance. In court, he confessed to the attack but denied any intention to kill. "If I had wanted to kill them, I would have done it and stabbed them in the neck," said the father of three. Incidentally, one of his sons (20) was always in the truck with him - even on the day of the attack - as he has been disabled since birth.

"I was defending my honor, my money and my son," the accused describes emotionally, claiming that the entrepreneurs still owed him money and wrongly blamed him for damage to the truck and thefts. He sees his attacks as self-defense.  

"Wasn't a real knife"
Asked several times by the presiding judge Erik Nauta whether he did not believe that he could have killed the men, the Hungarian emphasized that it was "not a real knife" and that the junior boss was "so thick" that the small knife could not really get through. 

The victim described it quite differently on the witness stand: "I've never felt such pain in my life." When he was able to get up again, he immediately rushed to his father, who was being stabbed by the defendant. "I thought that if I didn't go to my father now, he would die." The jury is expected to reach a verdict on Tuesday.