Blackmail – Trial in the Schumacher blackmail case begins in December – Panorama

Wuppertal (dpa) – In the fall of the attempted blackmail of the family of former Formula 1 racing driver Michael Schumacher, the court hearing begins in December. The Wuppertal district court has admitted the prosecution’s charges without any changes, the court said. The main hearing against the three defendants will begin on December 10th.

According to the indictment, one of the suspects is said to have been employed by a security company until March 2021 to guard the Swiss property of racing driver Michael Schumacher, who died in an accident in 2013. “He is said to have come into possession of a large number of photo and video files in which Michael Schumacher can be seen,” the district court said.

According to earlier information, the family employee was also familiar with digitizing private photos. The accused is a 53-year-old man from Wülfrath near Wuppertal.

A man of the same age from Wuppertal is said to have carried out the blackmail attempt with his 30-year-old son. The family should pay 15 million euros – otherwise the images and videos would be published on the darknet.

According to the information, the data carriers handed over are two hard drives and four USB sticks with videos and photo files. These were taken before and after Schumacher’s serious accident in 2013.

Calls to the Schumacher family

The alleged perpetrators are said to have attempted to blackmail the family in several calls. A family employee asked for a sample of the material as evidence. This was sent via a technically untraceable email address. However, the Swiss police managed to trace the caller’s number to Kassel. The third defendant is accused of helping the alleged blackmailer set up the email address for him.

No money was handed over. The men were previously arrested. According to the public prosecutor’s office, 900 image files and 583 video files were seized.

The 53-year-old from Wuppertal is now being tried to accuse him of blackmail in a particularly serious case, and his son was an accomplice. The father remains in custody. The arrest warrants against the other two defendants have now been conditionally suspended.

Previous attempt at expression

The investigation was initiated following a tip-off from Swiss law enforcement authorities. It is not the first attempt to blackmail the family of the former racing driver. In 2017, the Reutlingen district court in Baden-Württemberg convicted a 25-year-old man for trying to blackmail Schumacher’s wife Corinna Schumacher out of 900,000 euros. He had threatened that otherwise something would happen to the children. The man was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 21 months. At the time, he had given his real account number in an email to Corinna Schumacher.

Formula 1 record world champion Schumacher was seriously injured in a skiing accident at the end of 2013. He has not appeared in public since.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:241015-930-261206/1