In the trial surrounding the hostage-taking at Hamburg Airport, the regional court sentenced the defendant to twelve years in prison. The criminal court found the 35-year-old guilty on Tuesday of hostage-taking, abduction of minors, intentional bodily harm and possession of ammunition.
“Twelve years’ imprisonment for this insane act. That is our answer,” said presiding judge Torsten Schwarz in his verdict. The public prosecutor had demanded twelve years’ imprisonment, the defense had not made any specific request for punishment.
On the evening of November 4, the defendant kidnapped his daughter from his ex-wife’s apartment in Stade, Lower Saxony. He drove to the airport with the four-year-old in his car at high speed. At a gate near the terminals, he broke through three barriers in the rental car and made his way onto the airport apron.
There he threw two incendiary devices out of the car. Two columns of fire shot up in the middle of the ongoing flight operations, as video footage shown in the trial shows. The defendant fired three times into the air with a loaded pistol – once directly next to a Turkish Airlines plane that had just landed and in which the crew was still present.
The 35-year-old demanded that a plane be made available to him so that he could travel to Turkey with his daughter, and he threatened to blow himself and the child up. “Either they should kill us or we’ll leave,” he said, according to the prosecutor. A supposed explosive belt later turned out to be a dummy.
The more than 20-hour interruption of flight operations had an impact across Europe, causing damage amounting to millions of euros.
The defendant had largely confessed to the crimes. The verdict is not yet final.