The Prosecutor of the Public Ministry of the Court of Beja asked for prison, between 7 and 8 year old, for German citizen presumed author of the fire at Clube Fluvial Odemirense. the defendant did not speak.
The Public Prosecutor (MP) of Beja asked for a prison sentence between 7 and 8 years for Markolf Ipfelkofer, of 35 year old, a German citizen, who came to trial accused of the material authorship of the crimes of aggravated theft and fire at the headquarters and boats of Clube Fluvial Odemirense (CFO). The Magistrate kept the first of the crimes, but changed the classification of the crime of fire to qualified damage.
The defendant's defense attorney asked for his acquittal, considering that there was a lack of evidence to support that her client was the author of the crimes.. In turn, the defenders of the CFO and the Municipality of Odemira, considered that sufficient evidence was provided for the defendant to be sentenced in civil claims in the amount of 129.722,67 euros e de 70.023 euros, respectively.
Markolf Ipfelkofer, that at the time of the events he was on the run from German justice and on whom a European Arrest Warrant was pending, with the aim of stealing money and values ​​from the CFO and covering up his criminal action, caused the fire in the early hours of 9 October 2021, using a bottle of gel firelighter, causing more damage than 90 thousand euros.
This Tuesday morning, the Court of Beja, Ipfelkofer made no statements, claiming that he “did not trust the translation of his words that could lead to his being incriminatedâ€, having also waived the reading of the indictment order.
The witness who alerted the authorities and photographed the vehicle in which the defendant was traveling, described the facts in detail, while the PJ inspector from Portimão, said that after the description of the suspect and the collection of photos from the van, “it was possible to identify him by the film cameras of a bar in the village and that the clothes he was wearing were inside the aforementioned vehicleâ€, justifying that “it was not possible to collect traces of the individual at the crime scene, in the face of the firefighters' aftermath workâ€, concluded.
Has learned the Lidador News (LN) with the president of the CFO, “we have not yet received a cent from the insurance company which is awaiting the decision of the court case, but has already made it known that the insurance that the club has does not cover the risk of fire caused by vandalism”, justified.
The defendant who is in pre-trial detention at the Beja Prison, will know the decision of the Panel of Judges the next day 20, to 13,45 hours. If convicted, after serving the prison sentence, Markolf will be extradited to Germany, where he will be tried for thefts in different regions of that country, including the Volkswagen van, in which it was transported, belonging to the “Universiat Hohenheim Fuhrparkâ€, in Stuttgart.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
