Styrian (29) charged

Protection racketeer or drunken braggart?

The Styrian is said to have blackmailed a brothel operator and his partner (symbolic image).

(Bild: APA/dpa/Oliver Berg)

The charges sound wild: extortion of protection money in a nightclub, a notorious motorcycle gang and bouncers in fear. But somehow the accused doesn't fit the picture you might expect. 

It is well known that motorcycle gangs extort protection money. And somehow you also have an idea of what a blackmailer looks like. Muscular, tattooed, perhaps bald. The 29-year-old Styrian, who is taking his place in front of the lay assessor's court in Graz on Monday, is none of these things.

He is rather inconspicuous, divorced, lives with his parents, works at his dad's company and has debts of 50,000 euros because he really wanted a Range Rover. "I don't pay rent, so I thought I'd treat myself," he explains to Judge Catherine Farmer.

The brothel in question is more or less like his second home. "Since Corona. Because it was the only place where we could get alcohol. It was known throughout the district," he explains. But he had never had sex there.

4000 euros or the brothel burns down
He could not explain why the nightclub boss suddenly accused him of extorting protection money the previous year. "The accused had financial problems and wanted to get money by making dangerous threats," prosecutor Ines Eichwalder is convinced. He threatened that a notorious motorcycle gang would come and burn down the nightclub if 4000 euros were not paid.

 "Did you perhaps want to show off a bit when you were drunk?" asks the judge. After all, according to the defense lawyer, the defendant is said to get loud and rant when he drinks. "No, certainly not, I dare swear I didn't do that." Years ago, he once spoke to other guests about this motorcycle gang because they were from Bosnia, like his parents. "But I only know them by name. They probably used that against me."

Perhaps you just wanted to show off a little while drunk?

Leichter Stups der Richterin für ein mögliches Geständnis

"Was lured into a back room"
The owner also lured him into a back room once, where his things were taken from him and a Chechen or Afghan ("some dark guy") played around with a knife in front of his nose. "They told me not to talk this protection money nonsense. But I explained that I didn't do that."

"Then how did the protection money stuff come about? Your explanations aren't necessarily comprehensible?" the judge wondered more than once during the trial. "A funny story, I know," shrugs the defendant. "Maybe they thought I was trying to poach prostitutes because one of them once gave me her Facebook account." - "Poaching?" asks the judge. "He means getting them out, coming to their aid," interjects the defense lawyer.

Narcotics officers wanted to recruit me as an informer in the brothel.

Der Angeklagte

"Snitch in a brothel - too dangerous"
It gets even more abstruse when the 29-year-old recounts an encounter with exalted detectives who wanted to hire him as a snitch in a brothel because they were after the nightclub boss. "They also said they knew I hadn't done anything. But it was all too dangerous for me." And because he didn't want to cooperate with the narcotics investigators, this has now come out in court, the defense attorney leaves the hidden accusation hanging in the air.

The appearance of a prostitute and partner of the brothel owner does not shed much light on the matter. She claims to have paid the accused 500 euros after he followed her to the toilet and threatened her. "I was really scared." The accused is also said to have been banned from bars because he and his friends often had payment difficulties. "And after the protection money thing." That's why he threatened a bouncer ("I'll break your face") when he wouldn't let him into the nightclub.

The whole story was very convoluted - which led to an acquittal in case of doubt at the end of the trial (not legally binding).