Zug,21.11.2017

Criminal court hears case of attempted murder

Judges at the Zug criminal court are currently hearing a case of attempted murder dating back to 2015/16.
 
The two people accused, who have not been named, are a 39-year-old Romanian woman and a 46-year-old Swiss man with huge debts with whom she was having a relationship at the time the murder was being planned. The intended victim was the afore-mentioned woman’s Swiss husband, an alcoholic, with whom she has been married since 2010 and who is now 51 years old.
 
One possible motive behind the planned murder was because the husband had become a hindrance to his wife and her boyfriend. Another was because the wife, subsequent to her husband’s death, stood to inherit his flat, which she intended to sell and thereby pocket CHF 500,000.
 
The wife and the boyfriend then worked out a plan by which they would administer medicine to the husband in ever increasing doses over a period of time as he drank Ouzo, a milky-coloured aniseed-flavoured drink, so he would not notice what had been added to it. As to the provenance of this medicine, this came from a nurse girlfriend of the boyfriend, with whom he was having another relationship.
 
The medicine was duly administered, rendering the husband sick and drowsy. However, purely by chance, the husband found out about the plan to murder him as he noticed his credit card had been used illegally.
 
The scheming couple now face charges of attempted murder, for which they could each be given a sentence of ten years’ imprisonment, with a possible further five years, in both cases, for punishable preparatory acts prior to the attempt on the husband’s life. In addition, the boyfriend has been charged with several counts of attempted fraud and other offences.
 
The counsel for defence of the woman is calling for her to be cleared of any offence, claiming she never got to act out that what she had intended; she had only planned it all in her mind.
 
As for the counsel for the defence of the boyfriend, he declined to comment before the trial began.
 
At present, the woman is being detained in prison as it is considered she is at risk of absconding, while her now former boyfriend is at liberty.
 
Judgment is this case is not expected until Tuesday 12 December.