A man who bit another person's ear in a brawl on a building site in the Neufeld area of Baar three-and-a-half years ago has been fined by a Zug court and given a suspended prison sentence.
 
The incident was provoked by an argument about work between two Serbian brothers from Lucerne and a man from Cham. During the altercation, one of the Serbian workers tried to hit a 51-year-old man from Cham with a sledgehammer, in what was described as an unprovoked attack. He also bit the man's ear, an action condemned by the court as self-defence could not be claimed. The defendant, the owner of a tiling company, was given a 15-month suspended sentence and fined CHF 1,000. "The defendant should be made aware of the direct consequences of his reprehensible behaviour," said the judge, who also ordered the Serbian to pay court costs of CHF 21,000 as well as CHF 6,000 to his victim's insurance company. His 33 year-old brother was acquitted.
 
The victim, who has since taken early retirement through ill health, was also charged with several accounts of threatening behaviour having brandished a pistol at the other men, but the judge felt he had done this purely on account of the exceptional situation in which he found himself, bearing in mind he had been threatened with a sledgehammer. The judge said it was easy to understand why he was in a state of over-excitement, but he was nevertheless fined CHF 1,320 (the equivalent of 120 days at CHF 110).
 
The victim was claiming CHF 20,000 compensation for the bite on his ear which had caused considerable pain and required a long period of rehabilitation, but he was awarded just CHF 2000 as, according to the judge, the injury was "on the borderlines" of serious bodily harm. The 38-year-old Serb also asked for compensation for being threatened with a pistol, but the judge said his excessive rage and aggression had contributed to the brawl escalating.