Trial opens of world boxing champion accused of murder
The defence lawyer for a former world boxing champion on trial for murder in Switzerland has demanded an acquittal before the Bernese High Court. The public prosecutor demanded a prison sentence of 18.5 years.
The 37-year-old woman allegedly beat her husband to death in Interlaken in 2020. With the requested sentence, the public prosecutor’s office exceeded the 16-year prison sentence imposed at first instance.
There were no indications of third-party involvement, and this had been clarified in detail during the investigations, the public prosecutor’s office said in court on Monday. The defendant’s relationship with her husband had deteriorated considerably, it added. He had rejected her and the couple no longer lived together.
The prosecutor said this had taken its toll on the “proud, dominant woman”, who had a key to her husband’s flat and who had opened the balcony door to feign a break-in.
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Defence lawyer wants acquittal
The defence lawyer said the evidence was insufficient and that it could not be ruled out that someone else had killed the victim. He put forward numerous exculpatory elements in favour of his client.
For example, she had been suffering from shoulder and elbow problems at the time of the crime and had been on sick leave. She would not have been able to carry out the necessary blows.
The victim was notoriously careless with his keys, he said. It was therefore not clear who else had a key to the victim’s flat apart from the accused. In addition, the victim had sometimes left the balcony door open.
The regional court in Thun sentenced the woman at first instance to 16 years’ imprisonment for murder in December 2022 following a circumstantial evidence trial. She is alleged to have killed her husband, an Interlaken landlord, in October 2020.
The accused had won the championship title of the world’s largest boxing association, the World Boxing Association (WBA), in 2018. She ran a boxing gym in Interlaken. The Bernese High Court will hand down its judgement on Friday.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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