Love stories have always been the most widespread and timeless theme in literature, painting, music, theatre and film. Even when we sympathise with the characters of a particular work, we know that it is all fiction and that real life rarely unfolds so dramatically and spectacularly. Yet a great many authors build the plots of their works on real events. The story of one of our clients could easily have served as the basis for, say, a crime novel.
Wjatscheslaw (name changed) came to Germany from Russia only a few years ago to study at a German university. Our client quickly settled in and found a pleasant circle of young friends, where he took a liking to Natalja (name changed), a young woman with Russian roots who had been living in the Federal Republic for many years. A shared mother tongue and common interests and tastes quickly brought Wjatscheslaw and Natalja closer, and after a while Wjatscheslaw proposed to his girlfriend. Natalja happily accepted, and the couple applied to the Standesamt (registry office) to marry. It turned out, however, that a great many documents had to be submitted for the marriage, many of which our client had to obtain from Russia, so Wjatscheslaw and Natalja decided not to rush things and to gather the necessary papers calmly. In addition, Natalja's parents advised her to finish her studies first, which were due to take about another six months. For these reasons, the young couple decided to postpone registering their marriage by a few months.
So as not to have to postpone the wedding yet again, Wjatscheslaw actively set about obtaining the certificates and other documents required by the German registry office. For this reason he even had to travel to Russia for a while during the semester break, which he was actually glad about, as he could finally share his happiness with his family.
Having gathered the relevant documents, Wjatscheslaw returned to Germany and, naturally, went first to see his fiancée. To his surprise, however, Natalja received him rather coolly. When our client asked what was wrong, Natalja answered evasively, saying she simply did not feel very well. Worried about his girlfriend's state, Wjatscheslaw tried to be even more attentive and caring towards her, but Natalja seemed like a different person.
Our client assumed that his beloved had simply panicked before such a serious step as marriage, so he decided not to pressure her and to give her time to think. Another two months passed, Natalja's studies were drawing to a close, but the question of the wedding was not raised again, even though Wjatscheslaw and Natalja were still together. Saddened by the inexplicable change in his girlfriend's behaviour, Wjatscheslaw confided in their mutual friend Sergej (name changed), who told him that a few years earlier Natalja had been with a young man who later moved to another city and broke off contact with her, which had made her suffer for a very long time. This young man had recently returned, and the memories had evidently come flooding back for Natalja.
On hearing this, Wjatscheslaw went straight to Natalja to settle the matter once and for all. Shocked that our client knew such details, Natalja became very angry and started shouting that this man had nothing to do with it, that she had long since forgotten him and that Wjatscheslaw had no right to dig into her past. With these words, Natalja threw our client out of her flat.
Hoping that his girlfriend would eventually be willing to clear everything up, Wjatscheslaw kept calling her, sending her messages and standing outside her window for hours. His messages were at times full of tenderness and concern, while at other times anger and jealousy came through and he demanded an immediate explanation from Natalja. Natalja, however, flatly refused to speak to him and also stopped responding to other friends. This behaviour worried our client greatly, and he began to fear that Natalja might take her own life.
After an agonising week of silence from Natalja, Wjatscheslaw decided to talk to her at any cost.
At around 11 p.m., our client called his girlfriend, who once again did not respond. He then sent her a message asking her to open the front door for him, as he was standing right outside her building. But this message also went unanswered. Noticing that the light was on in Natalja's window, Wjatscheslaw called her neighbour and asked him to let him into the building. The neighbour opened the front door, and our client went up to Natalja's flat. At the door, Wjatscheslaw rang insistently, knocked and begged her to open up for just a minute because he was very worried about her, but there was no response whatsoever. At that point our client, already fearing the worst, resorted to a desperate step and began kicking in the door. The noise, of course, attracted the attention of the neighbours, who immediately called the police. But Wjatscheslaw kept on kicking the door. When our client managed to break a hole in it, he was able to reach through and open the door from the inside. Once he finally got into the flat, Wjatscheslaw was surprised to find that Natalja was nowhere to be seen. After searching the rooms, our client ran out onto the balcony and saw only a dark patch in the snow below, after which he left the flat. At that moment the police arrived.
Wjatscheslaw remembers what happened next only very vaguely, as the news that Natalja had either fallen or jumped from the balcony shook him to the core. Mixing German and Russian words, Wjatscheslaw tried to explain something to the police officers, but the overall picture of the incident did not become any clearer. Natalja, who fortunately survived a fall from a height of 15 metres, was taken to hospital immediately.
Our client was not allowed to visit Natalja in hospital, but he learned from friends that she had suffered numerous injuries and fractures but was conscious. Literally a few days after the incident, Wjatscheslaw received a summons to the police for questioning as a suspect in attempted Totschlag (manslaughter, i.e. intentional killing without the aggravating features of murder) under § 212 of the German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch – StGB). Wjatscheslaw could not believe that all this was really happening to him, but once he had pulled himself together he realised that he urgently needed a very good lawyer who would be able to prove his innocence.
Our lawyer listened to the confused account of the deeply troubled client, upon whom such events had descended, tried to calm him down and explained that, after inspecting the investigation file (Ermittlungsakte), he would be able to send a well-founded letter to the public prosecutor's office (Staatsanwaltschaft) setting out Wjatscheslaw's legal position in detail. The lawyer advised Wjatscheslaw not to appear for questioning at the police station, and he also informed the police of this in an official letter, acting in our client's interests and on the basis of a power of attorney he had granted.
After receiving the investigation file, our lawyer examined all the evidence and witness statements it contained with the utmost care. It turned out that on the second day after the incident, Natalja had given a statement to the police saying that she had been alone at home that evening and had not wanted to see anyone, but that Wjatscheslaw had been particularly insistent, had tried to reach her all day and had come to her home in the evening. Natalja had assumed he was very angry with her because she did not want to continue the relationship, which is why she had not wanted to open the door to him. But Wjatscheslaw had rung and knocked for a long time and would not leave, and then had started to kick in the door. Natalja had become very frightened by this, which is why she had run out onto the balcony to climb across to the neighbouring balcony. After that, the injured party remembered nothing until she woke up in hospital.
Having questioned Wjatscheslaw in detail and reconstructed the sequence of events, our lawyer began drafting an official letter to the public prosecutor's office setting out the circumstances of the case from our client's point of view. But literally a few days after receiving the investigation file, our lawyer was sent new statements from Natalja. To Wjatscheslaw's horror, according to these statements our client had stood outside her door for a long time threatening her with violence and demanding to be let in, and at around 11 p.m., after breaking open the door, had forced his way into Natalja's flat, whereupon she had run out onto the balcony to climb across to the neighbouring one. According to Natalja, a scuffle then took place on the balcony and Wjatscheslaw pushed her, causing her to lose her balance and fall. In addition, the injured party claimed that Wjatscheslaw had repeatedly been violent towards her before this incident and had raped her, which is why Natalja had been very afraid of him. On the basis of these statements, Wjatscheslaw was additionally accused of intentionally causing bodily harm (§ 229 of the German Criminal Code).
Our lawyer met Wjatscheslaw again and asked him to describe his relationship with Natalja in as much detail as possible, to provide all their photos together and their correspondence, and to give the names of people who would be willing to testify on our client's behalf. Wjatscheslaw gathered the necessary information, spoke to friends and told the lawyer every detail of his relationship with Natalja.
On the basis of this information and the evidence recorded in the investigation file, our lawyer sent the public prosecutor's office a detailed statement of Wjatscheslaw's legal position, insisting on his innocence.
First, our lawyer drew attention to the fact that Natalja had, for unexplained reasons, changed her statement and now said she had fallen because our client had pushed her, although she had previously stated that it had happened by accident. This was most likely connected with pressure from her relatives on the injured party. Furthermore, Natalja's statements did not match the actual circumstances recorded in the investigation file. According to the call records and the messages he had sent Natalja on the evening of the incident, Wjatscheslaw was still outside the injured party's building at 11 p.m. and was asking her to open the door. At around 11.15 p.m. he called the neighbour, who confirmed this when questioned, and asked him to let him in. The attempts to break open the door began no earlier than 11.25 p.m., which is also when the neighbours' call to the police was logged. Wjatscheslaw therefore got into Natalja's flat no earlier than 11.35 p.m. According to the neighbours' statements, our client left the flat literally a few minutes after breaking open the door, and no screams or voices at all could be heard from the flat.
The lawyer further pointed out that in her first statement Natalja had said she was frightened by the loud knocking at the door and then by the door being broken open. There had been no mention of any threats from our client. Nor had the neighbours mentioned hearing any threats or angry shouting in their statements. The medical examination also found no signs of a struggle on the injured party's body. The credibility of Natalja's later statements was therefore highly questionable.
As to the violence our client had allegedly used against the injured party, the lawyer stated that these statements by Natalja were also untrue, since Wjatscheslaw and Natalja had been in a relationship for over a year, as shown by numerous photos of them together and the statements of their mutual friends. Moreover, the correspondence between our client and the injured party clearly showed that Wjatscheslaw had been very loving towards Natalja and that she had been just as attached to him. Our lawyer also pointed out that Wjatscheslaw and Natalja had applied to get married, although the wedding had subsequently been postponed, which likewise attested to how serious the relationship between our client and the injured party had been. Natalja had never reported Wjatscheslaw to the police for abuse or violence.
The lawyer also paid particular attention to the fact that, even in a state of agitation and despair when Natalja stopped responding to his calls and messages, our client had never made any threats against her, so Natalja had had no reason to fear for her life and health.
All the facts put forward by our lawyer showed that the elements of the offences under §§ 212 and 229 of the German Criminal Code were not present. For this reason, the lawyer insisted that the criminal proceedings against our client be discontinued for lack of evidence to support the charge (§ 170 Abs. 2 of the German Code of Criminal Procedure (Strafprozessordnung – StPO)).
The public prosecutor's office carefully reviewed the investigation file and agreed with the arguments put forward by our lawyer, concluding that our client's guilt had not been proven. On this basis, the suspicion against our client was dropped and the proceedings were discontinued under the above-mentioned provision.
With this example in mind, we recommend that, to protect your interests, you turn to a qualified and experienced lawyer who can not only present your legal position competently and highlight the facts in your favour, but also find counter-arguments to the other side's evidence.
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