From the courtroom

Real estate agent (94) attacked and robbed

The accused Pole was represented at the trial on Friday by lawyer Christina Lindner (pictured far left).(Bild: Chantall Dorn)

Following a brutal attack on a senior citizen in Bregenz, a 32-year-old Pole was sentenced to prison on Thursday at Feldkirch Regional Court as a contributory offender.

Almost two years after the traumatic event, the victim is still suffering from the horrific scenes from that time. As the 94-year-old real estate agent describes the events of the evening of March 31, 2023 in his office to the court, the frail man fights back tears again and again. "I screamed loudly for help because I thought the neighbors might hear me." The perpetrators then put tape over his mouth and blindfolded him. They even tied his arms and legs. "I then passed out because I thought they might kill me."

Broken rib, abrasions, hematomas
But from the beginning: Under the pretext of being on the lookout for a suitable house, two potential clients turn up at the estate agent's office on the evening in question. Completely out of the blue, one of them hands the businessman a threatening letter: "You owe our boss 170,000 euros. Put the money on the table and we'll leave," the note says. "I don't owe anyone anything and therefore didn't know what this was all about," the victim reports in his interrogation in court. Then everything happened very quickly, says the victim, referring to his ordeal. He was later diagnosed with a broken rib, numerous abrasions and hematomas in hospital.

While one of the perpetrators is now serving time for theft in Germany, the 32-year-old Polish man in Feldkirch was the one who got the rap. He had to answer as an accomplice because he wrote the threatening letter and acted as the driver for the two accomplices. A SIM card found at the scene of the crime gave him away. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison as an accessory to robbery. The judge awarded the victim 2,000 euros in partial damages.