A German court sentenced a man to life imprisonment on Tuesday over the killing of a gas station employee who had asked him to wear an anti-Covid mask.
The 50-year-old accused shot a 20-year-old cashier at a gas station on September 18, 2021. Earlier in the day, the cashier had reminded him of the obligation to wear a mask due to the pandemic.
He appeared in court in Bad Kreuznach in the west of the country. The murder, which took place in Idar-Oberstein (West), has shocked Germany, where in the last few years a virulent anti-mask and anti-vaccine movement has formed.
The accused, also convicted of illegally carrying a firearm, had an initial altercation with the cashier over being asked to wear a mask, before returning an hour and a half later and shooting him at point-blank range. He had, according to the prosecution, developed rage against the anti-Covid measures.
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“As he knew he could not reach the political leaders, he decided to kill” the young employee, said prosecutor Nicole Frohn during the trial. After confessing, he said he regretted his action. In Germany, life imprisonment lasts an average of 20 years.
In this case, no “particular seriousness of the guilt” of the accused was found, which could in theory lead to the release of the convicted person after 15 years.
In practice, however, convicted women rarely benefit from this type of measure.
