Police raid properties linked to bomb threats – DW – 11/25/2025

A man sentenced to nine years in juvenile prison last March for a 2022 murder has been acquitted on appeal at the Traunstein District Court in Bavaria.

Presiding Judge Heike Will on Tuesday called an “unexpectedly swift end to the proceedings” and ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict the defendant of murdering the female medical student named Hanna.

A psychologist then announced that the prosecution’s key witness, an elderly inmate who had testified that the defendant, identified as Sebastian T., had confessed to killing Hannah during a card game, had not given credible testimony at the initial trial.

Germany’s highest federal court for such cases declared a mistrial in response to the developments in September and called for a new trial in Bavaria.

The prosecution also recommended the man’s acquittal, although it still believed Hannah’s death was a murder. Meanwhile, defense attorneys argued that Sebastian T.’s innocence was again demonstrated after denying murder at all stages of the trial.

The body of young woman Hanna was found in the Priene river on October 3, 2022, after attending a disco in Aschau in the Bavarian Alps. “escaler” Or “ice cellar.”

The defense argued that accidental death was most likely, and the wounds to his head and upper body were probably sustained because he was dragged for several kilometers by the river current.

The defendant, now 23, was released from custody ahead of a retrial. He was convicted in March 2024. Traunstein’s court ordered that he be compensated for the 31 months he spent in prison.