Trial in Eisenstadt

New Year’s baby 2011 hatched one Sunday too early

The trial in Eisenstadt has to go into extra time.

(Bild: HS, Krone KREATIV)

A schoolboy living in Burgenland is alleged to have tampered with the cash register of a newspaper stand. Was the accused still 13 or just 14 years old at the time? This is now being examined because the actual age is relevant for the sentence.

Basically, it is a trifle that is being heard at Eisenstadt Regional Court. A young Syrian, resident in a children's village in Burgenland, allegedly tried to break open the cash register of a newspaper stand with a stone on the evening of January 5, 2025. The expected loot would probably have been manageable. "That's not true," says the boy. "A stranger approached me and asked me to shine my flashlight." He ran away when the police arrived. "But I stopped immediately. Because I remembered that I hadn't done anything."

The judge described his role as a "minor contribution to the crime" before the 13 or 14-year-old was able to remember the name of the supposed stranger. His first and last names are identical and, according to his documents, he was also born on January 1, 2011. And this is precisely where the problem lies. If the defendant, who enjoys the presumption of innocence, had committed the crime one Sunday earlier, he would undoubtedly not have been of criminal age as a 13-year-old and the judge would probably have sent him home if he had accepted responsibility and ordered a probationary period, the mildest of all punishments.

His lawyer has now filed an application to find out the Syrian's actual birthday. "In his home country, a conspicuous number of people have the date January 1, even though they may have been born later. The parents deliberately make them older so that they can start school earlier."

So the case was adjourned.