A court in Munich in Germany has acquitted a man previously convicted of murder who had been imprisoned for 13 years. According to the court, today 63-year-old Manfred Genditzki, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing an 87-year-old woman, has been wrongly convicted, writes Deutsche Welle.
– It was not a murder, he is acquitted and thus innocent, says a spokesperson for the court, TT reports.
It was in 2010 that Manfred Genditzki was sentenced to life in prison for killing the 87-year-old woman who was a tenant of a house where he worked as a caretaker in 2008.
According to the conviction, he had hit the woman in the back of the head during an argument and then drowned her in a bathtub.
The new evidence: Died in an accident
Since then, Manfred Genditzki has consistently denied killing the woman while fighting to get a new trial. Last August, the case was brought up again, and on Friday it was announced that he will be released from prison.
According to the court, new evidence points to the woman’s death in connection with an accident.
– You have heard the words you have been waiting for for almost 14 years, said the court judge Elisabeth Ehrl when she announced the sentence, reports Deutsche Welle.
According to Ehrl, the woman probably fell into the bathtub while doing laundry, after which she lost consciousness and then drowned.
“No reason to celebrate”
It was a packed and tearful courtroom when the acquittal was announced. However, Manfred Genditzki himself is said to have taken the news with great calmness.
– I’m not going to jump for joy. I have no reason to celebrate. Fourteen years have passed, he said.
According to Elisabeth Ehrl, the German government must now pay a compensation of almost 369,000 euros, corresponding to just over SEK 4.3 million, for the wrongly imposed prison sentence.