Two and a half years in prison

Sleeping Viennese man attacked with a sword

The 26-year-old Iranian in the Vienna Regional Court.

(Bild: Jöchl Martin/Jöchl Martin, Krone KREATIV)

A 26-year-old under the influence of cannabis attacked his friend, using an unusual weapon. The victim recalled in court: "He was standing by my bed with a sword." He must now serve two and a half years in prison for the offense while fully intoxicated. He will also be housed.

"I am guilty. I was totally intoxicated. I'm a psychopath," a 26-year-old man admits to a bloody attack with a sword. He had attacked a sleeping 44-year-old acquaintance with a sword. However, he is not convicted of attempted murder in the Vienna Regional Court, but of committing an offense while fully intoxicated. In addition to two and a half years in prison, he was sent to a forensic therapy center.

Confessed with sword at bedside
The victim described to a panel of lay judges what happened to him in his apartment in Vienna-Favoriten on the night of July 23, 2024. After watching television with the accused, with whom he had had irregular sexual contact for several years, drinking a beer and then lying down, he woke up at 3.00 a.m. to a noise: "He was standing by my bed with a sword. I told him to hang it up again."

Unusual weapon: The 26-year-old grabbed the sword in a frenzy (symbolic image).

(Bild: thinkstockphotos.de)

The weapon was an object that had been purchased at a medieval festival and which the 44-year-old had hung on the wall in his living room for decorative purposes. The accused "immediately stabbed it quickly and often", the witness outlined the subsequent events. In his drowsy state, he had "not expected it at all."

"Realized that the stab had gone through"
"You are the devil! I have already killed many devils. I am the Mahdi," shouted the 26-year-old from Iran during the attack. According to traditional Islamic belief, this is a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, who will appear in the end times and eliminate injustice in the world. When he called for help, he was strangled, the 44-year-old reported. Then his acquaintance stabbed him again.

The blade opened the victim's chest, damaged his lungs and the man also suffered stab wounds to his upper abdomen and under his left armpit. "I noticed that one of the stabs had gone through. I noticed how the air hissed out," recalled the seriously injured man. Rapid emergency medical assistance saved the life of the man, who was taken to hospital in an acutely life-threatening condition.

Defendant wants to hug victim: "Please don't."
When asked whether he wanted to make a claim for damages against the accused, the man replied dryly: "Where there is nothing to be gained, even the emperor has lost his rights." The witness only lost his composure briefly when he was asked by the defendant after his questioning whether he could hug him. "Please don't", the 44-year-old firmly refused.

The psychiatric expert Siegfried Schranz attributed the sword attack to massive cannabis intoxication. As a result, the accused was in a "drug-induced psychosis". However, Schranz found that he was sane at the time of the crime. "If the defendant had not been in such a state, we would have been in front of a jury for attempted murder," emphasized the public prosecutor. The 26-year-old only pleads at the end of the trial: "I am a sick person. Please forgive me."