Kosovan confesses he intended to steal drugs

Regular readers may remember how, on the evening of 16 June 2015, the owner of a converted barn on Dorfstrasse where he kept some 30 snakes, some of them poisonous, fired shots and injured two men who had come to acquire drugs from him. The now sixty-year-old was initially charged with several counts of attempted murder but convicted only of excessive self-defence and given a suspended two-year sentence.

The court case last Friday related to the man’s demand for CHF 5,000 compensation from the two men, Russian and Kosovan nationals now in their early thirties, who arrived at the house that night to procure marijuana the man traded in, along with some cash. The two east Europeans initially stated their intention was simply to buy some drugs, but the situation got out of control. A row broke out after the drug dealer insulted the mother of one of the Slavs, who retaliated by hitting him on the head, and indeed several times, the victim claimed.

At the subsequent trial, judges at the criminal court did not believe the two men had gone to the house simply to buy drugs and they were given sentences of three years and seven months in one case and three years in another for attempted robbery One of them is still serving a further sentence for an unrelated offence in Lucerne.

The two east Europeans subsequently appealed against their sentences insisting they were not guilty at all. At the hearing on Friday, the 60-year-old said how, three years on, he was still suffering from the effects of the blows he received to his head that evening, having to wear tinted glasses. Asked by the judge if he was sure the men demanded money in addition to drugs, he said he was 100 per cent certain.

Then, all of a sudden, in court, the Kosovan, much to the astonishment of his accomplice, confessed that, when he had been waiting outside the house that night, he had heard the drug dealer say where the drugs were kept, a female witness having previously stated how she had seen a man throw a bag out of the house; a bag which was subsequently discovered and found to have contained 30 grammes of cannabis. This admission by one of the convicts led the prosecution to conclude that his previous claim he had merely wanted to buy some marijuana to enable him to spend a pleasant evening was not credible and cast doubt over the credibility of all his previous statements.

The verdict in this case is to be issued in written format at a later date.

Locals who suffer from ophidiophobia and fear they may live within slithering distance will be relieved to know all snakes were removed from the house after the initial incident three years ago.