The trial for the death of 20-year-old Filippo Tsani of Greek origin, who was fatally injured last June after a violent beating while returning from his sister’s graduation party in Bad Oyenhausen, began today in a court in Bielefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia.

According to Focus magazine, the charge brought today by the prosecutor Christoph Mackel concerns manslaughter and robbery against a person unable to react. The young expat was punched and kicked in the head, causing him to suffer severe brain damage and succumb to his injuries two days later. The main defendant is 18-year-old Syros Mouafak S., while two 19-year-old Germans, Nick R. and Ferdinand D., are accused of causing grievous bodily harm and theft. Reading the indictment, the prosecutor stated that Filippos Tsanis and the three perpetrators got involved in a confrontation “without reason” and without knowing each other. They met by chance in a park near where the victim’s sister’s graduation event was being hosted, when Tsanis and a friend were leaving. Christoph Mackel described the scene in detail, explaining that the 18-year-old Syrian deliberately kicked the victim in the legs to make him fall and then managed to hit him hard on the head with his hands and feet, “knowing that the 20-year-old could also die”.

The indictment refers to robbery and theft, because the perpetrators took from the victim a bag with money, a few grams of narcotics and a perfume, which they shared. As the prosecutor specifically said, one of the defendants “sprayed his neck with the perfume, while the victim was unconscious on the ground”. However, according to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, one of the co-accused has incriminated the 18-year-old Syrian with his testimony.

A crowd gathered outside the court today cheered the perpetrators, who arrived in the courtroom accompanied by a strong police force. The victim’s father, Dimitris Tsanis, was also in court, who, in a state of intense charge, shouted “murderers”.

The violent death of the 20-year-old had sparked intense public debate over the issue of deporting foreign criminals, with the debate even reaching the Bundestag. “Philip could be our son,” Christian Democratic Party (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz said, speaking of “not an isolated incident” and “uncontrolled immigration.” The perpetrators have one thing in common, “they are young people who came to Germany from other countries as immigrants and had every opportunity to live a life of freedom, but they were driven to violence”, Mr. Mertz. As the WDR network has now revealed, authorities had failed to share information about Syros’ criminal record before the murder, which included repeated crimes dating back to 2020 and a “on the verge of delinquency” designation. Muafak S. he arrived in Germany in 2016 at the age of 10, as part of the family reunification program, as his parents were already in the country. The authorities also appear to have lost track of the 18-year-old, and when he moved in October 2023 to Bad Ouenhausen, neither the police nor the immigration office received information about his past.

The Bielefeld District Court has scheduled 19 days of hearings, which are expected to conclude in May 2025.