The key witness in the Salzburg Captagon proceedings was now in front of the criminal court
Accusations of attempted coercion, dangerous threats and bodily harm – the Iraqi was ultimately acquitted, as was a co-defendant Syrian.
The 41-year-old Iraqi who is currently running a mega-trial against 14 defendants for alleged trafficking of 13.8 million captagon pills is the prosecutor’s key witness himself, had to sit in the dock on Friday in a criminal trial.
The Iraqi – who, explosively, has a relationship with the Arabic interpreter who translated thousands of telephone calls between the accused whom he charged as key witnesses during the Captagon investigation – was charged with coercion, threats and bodily harm. Specifically, in March 2021, the 41-year-old (defender: Attorney Thomas Klein) is said to threaten several members of an Arab family with the “head cutting” and, secondly, a 31-year-old Syrian, with whom he has been in dispute for a long time, with kicks and beatings hurt. Said Syrian (defense attorney Kurt Jelinek) was charged with allegedly injuring the Iraqi himself.
The judge finally acquitted both defendants for lack of evidence. The verdict is not yet legally binding.