Two native Albanians live in the Oberpullendorf district on neighboring properties. In September 2020 a dispute about a wall escalated, which is why the men aged 58 and 53 met on Monday of this week in front of judge Daniela Berger.
The 53-year-old is said to have threatened his compatriot and neighbor: “Blood will flow if you fasten the goal posts to my wall with screws”. The 58-year-old is said to have hit the opponent with a pole that is used in the garden to tie up tomatoes and thrown a bucket at him. The public prosecutor’s office had sent the two fighters to the Neustart association, which was supposed to organize an out-of-court settlement of offenses. However, this attempt failed.
“Why didn’t it come to anything?” Asked the judge. “It’s not my fault,” said the 53-year-old. And the 58-year-old was also convinced that he had not done anything criminal. Judge Daniela Berger offered – if both sides assumed responsibility – a diversion without a criminal record and spoke to both men in their conscience: “They live next to each other and will not get past each other!”
“I’m not taking on anything!” Said the 53-year-old stubbornly. Above all, he is not ready to pay the 100 euros flat rate set by the court. Even when the 58-year-old neighbor, represented by a lawyer, offered 200 euros as compensation for the pain caused, the other did not give in: “I don’t want problems, but he!”
“He comes from the village, I from a big city,” the 58-year-old shook his head. They both “came to Austria with a plastic bag”. “Now I have a house, he has a house,” says the 58-year-old, who has been with a leisure company for 15 years. It was only when the judge explained to the 53-year-old’s son why diversion would make sense and he spoke to the father that the matter moved.
“I’ve been there for 13 years. I don’t want to sell the house tomorrow. I want to have some rest, ”the 53-year-old grumbled. “We haven’t had problems for 13 years,” his neighbor clarified. “We Albanians are not like that …”
“Please shake hands, also for your children!” The judge appealed to the accused. Now at last the men got up from the dock, turned to each other and touched each other with their outstretched fists – a pandemic-friendly variant of the conciliatory shake hand. This is how diversion came about.
The 58-year-old has to pay his neighbors 200 euros in damages, both of which have to transfer 100 euros each to the court, then the proceedings are dropped.
“Have a beer!” Recommended prosecutor Roland Koch. “Have a beer from the fence!”
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