Dresden. In the process of an illegal car race with a fatal outcome, both of the accused surprisingly made statements on Monday for the first time about the accident on August 22nd in Budapester Strasse, in which a six-year-old boy was killed. The trial could end this Monday. Numerous onlookers had tried to take part in the proceedings as spectators, but there was only room for around a dozen observers in the hall.
The defendants, two Syrians aged 32 and 24, have had to answer before the Dresden Regional Court since the beginning of February. They are accused of staging a banned car race resulting in death. The elderly Mohammad F., who had driven the accident car, also negligent homicide. He is in custody for the weekend of the accident.
Six-year-old boy captured from the front
According to the indictment, the two men competed every Saturday evening. At around 8.45 p.m., the two vehicles, a Mercedes and a BMW, were traveling at high speed side by side on the two-lane Budapester Strasse towards the city center when two children ran across the street near the Lidl supermarket. The 32-year-old defendant at the wheel of the Mercedes in the right lane was no longer able to brake in time and hit the six-year-old boy head-on. The child was thrown around 20 meters against a bus stop and died of his serious injuries at the scene of the accident. The mother of the child, who also comes from Syria, is taking part in the proceedings as a joint plaintiff.
Fs defense attorney Jürgen Saupe said in the morning that the defendant was on his way to Neustadt with a friend to eat there. The BMW with the co-defendant at the wheel has not seen since the start of the journey because it has parked elsewhere. The men would not have fought a race. The defendant did not allow any inquiries.
The 24-year-old Mohamed A. also said that the men had not arranged to meet for a race. However, it was only now during the trial that he learned from his defense lawyer that the journey could legally be seen as a race, even if neither an exact route nor a price had been agreed. He wants to take full responsibility for it. The ride “was the biggest mistake of my life”.
However, he wanted to test the performance of the BMW because he was interested in the vehicle. At the traffic lights after the Nossener Brücke and before turning into Budapest, he “felt provoked” by the Mercedes driver and wanted to show him that he could drive fast, as A. said. He wanted to stay with the Mercedes “under all circumstances”, as he said. A. also answered inquiries from the court and the public prosecutor’s office, but details of where he was at the time of the accident or what he felt provoked by remained open.
