According to the ruling handed down on Thursday by the regional court in Klagenfurt, the 54-year-old was given a four-month suspended sentence and a fine of 800 euros for manslaughter by gross negligence. The verdict is not final. The victim died of pneumonia caused by the coronavirus.
A virologist's test showed that the DNA of the coronavirus that attacked his body was the same as the DNA of the virus found in his neighbor who was presented to the court, proving with almost 100 percent certainty that the defendant was the one who infected him in December 2021. According to the expert, such a high degree of coincidence between the viruses found in the two cases is particularly rare, because coronaviruses mutate very quickly. At the time of the verdict, the judge told the defendant that he “personally felt sorry for him, because this is a case that has probably happened hundreds of times, but only now has an expert shown – unfortunately for the defendant – almost complete certainty that he transmitted the infection.”
The woman had already been convicted and sentenced in July last year also in cases related to the coronavirus. At that time, he was given a three-month suspended sentence for deliberately exposing others to infection: he did not remain in quarantine after his positive test result, and walked among people without a mask.
Separate proceedings have been launched to investigate a charge of manslaughter committed through gross negligence. Relatives of the deceased told the court that neighbours had met each other in the stairwell on a day when the accused was certain he had contracted coronavirus.
The convict denied having met his neighbour, who later fell ill, that day, and also claimed that he thought he did not have Covid, but – as is the case every winter – only had bronchitis. On the other hand, the family doctor told the police: When the woman tested positive for coronavirus, he said: “She certainly would not have locked herself in her apartment because of this.”
