German court sentences killers of Ukrainian basketball players to 8.5-10 years

10 comments

1. A court in the German city of Essen on Dec. 2 sentenced four teenagers to between eight and a half to 10 years in a youth detention center for the murder of two Ukrainian basketball players earlier this year, German media reported.

   [Volodymyr Yermakov](https://kyivindependent.com/foreign-ministry-german-police-detain-suspected-murderer-of-ukrainian-basketball-player/), 17, and [Artem Kozachenko](https://kyivindependent.com/second-ukrainian-basketball-player-dies-of-injuries-after-stabbing-in-germany/), 18, were attacked with knives in Oberhausen in February. Yermakov died in the hospital the same day, while Kozachenko succumbed to his injuries 10 days later.

   The perpetrators were between 14 and 15 years old at the time of the attack and included two Syrian citizens and two German citizens, the [ARD news channel](https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/nordrheinwestfalen/wdr-ukrainische-basketballer-in-oberhausen-erstochen-urteil-erwartet-100.html) reported. [Deutsche Welle](https://www.dw.com/ru/sud-v-essene-oglasil-prigovory-ubijcam-ukrainskih-basketbolistov/a-70941519?maca=rus-Red-Telegram-dwglavnoe) reported that one of the Germans also holds Greek citizenship.

   Due to the perpetrators’ age, the proceedings were held in a juvenile court behind closed doors.

   While the prosecutors initially assumed that the victims were attacked for being Ukrainian, the court could not establish a xenophobic motive. The perpetrators were “looking for trouble,” a court spokesperson said, according to the [WDR broadcaster.](https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/ruhrgebiet/urteil-getoetete-basketballer-oberhausen-100.html)

   According to the court’s ruling, the perpetrators sought to provoke a conflict during a journey on a bus with the victims giving them no reason to do so. After getting off the bus, Yermakov and Kozachenko were beaten and fatally stabbed.

   The verdict took other previous crimes into account, with some of the attackers considered repeat offenders. One of the defendants reportedly admitted to the knife attack, while others to the beatings.

   Two perpetrators will now serve 10 years in a youth detention center, and the other two eight and a half. Their defense plans to appeal the verdict.

   The two Ukrainian basketball players fled to Germany in 2023 due to Russia’s full-scale war, joining the ART Giants basketball team in Dusseldorf.

2. That is shockingly short sentence for murder.

3. Probably none of them fully European. What a classic. Europe sucks.

4. I support capital punishment. Dead criminals don’t reoffend.

5. Slack

6. Imho germany should kick them out after sentences… 2 are syrians and one is turkish afaik.

7. >two Syrian citizens

   Import the third world, become the third world. Jihadists do not belong in the civilized world and letting them in was a tragic mistake.

8. If there’s one thing autocracies do better than the democratic West is to punish criminals. If we could learn just one thing from them this should be it.

9. Europe just is not serious about punishment..

10. 8-10 is quite a steep punishment, in the netherlands you only have to do 12 years for a political murder.

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