Driven to his death

Trial in the Kellermayr case has been postponed

The trial against a 61-year-old German man who allegedly threatened the Upper Austrian doctor Lisa-Maria Kellermayr on a massive scale has been postponed. Instead of March 5, it will start on March 26 and is expected to last until April 9.

According to a statement from the Wels Regional Court, where the trial is taking place, the reason is that the accused is unable to attend. Lisa-Maria Kellermayr is said to have committed suicide following threats against her.

Receiving threatening emails
The defendant is accused of threatening the doctor in four emails and three Twitter messages between February and July 2022. He is said to have announced that he would bring her before a "people's tribunal" yet to be set up and "put her in the dock and then safely in prison". If convicted, the man, who already has a criminal record in Germany, faces one to ten years in prison.

Dispute over coronavirus vaccination
During the coronavirus pandemic, vaccination advocate Kellermayr had received threats by email and on social media - presumably from the anti-vaccination scene - for months. She first filed a complaint on November 22, 2021. In summer 2022, she closed her surgery for safety reasons. A few weeks later, she took her own life.