Because he wanted to steal the briefcase of a lawyer at night at Kottbusser Tor in Berlin, a family man has been on trial since Friday.

The accused: Mechanic Moustefa C. (38 years old) from Algeria, has four children. He hit the lawyer on the head with a beer bottle. Afterwards the lawyer was paralyzed on one side.

Since December 8, 2019 he has been in remand. “I often go to Kottbusser Tor to drink”, he mumbles when he hears the accusations. But he doesn’t remember the incident with the beer bottle on August 8, 2019 at all: “There were never any arguments.”The lawyer (38 years old) had then arrived in Berlin shortly before midnight by plane from London. “I had been drinking, sitting on the stairs at the underground station,” he says. “Someone came and grabbed my bag. There were work documents in it, I was holding it. I woke up in hospital, paralysed on the left side.”

Ten months have passed since then. Today the lawyer still can’t move his left arm and left hand properly: “My hand is shaking, I can’t lift anything.” He was hospitalized for three weeks with a severe skull fracture. He can walk again, but “I don’t go out in the evening”, says the lawyer.

The accused is facing up to ten years in prison. Sentence on June 3rd.

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