Germany Trial in Schumacher blackmail case begins in December
The trial in the case of the attempted blackmail of the family of former Formula 1 racing driver Michael Schumacher begins in December. The Wuppertal District Court has admitted the prosecution's indictment without amendment, the court announced. The main trial against the three defendants will begin on December 10.
According to the indictment, one of the suspects is alleged to have been employed until March 2021 as an employee of a security company to guard the Swiss property of racing driver Michael Schumacher, who died in an accident in 2013. "In doing so, he allegedly came into possession of a large number of photo and video files in which Michael Schumacher can be seen," the district court continued.
According to previous information, the employee was also entrusted with digitizing the family's 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 was supposed to pay 15 million euros - otherwise the images and videos would be published on the Darknet.
The data carriers handed over are said to be two hard disks and four USB sticks with videos and photo files. These were recorded before and after Schumacher's serious accident in 2013.
Calls to the Schumacher family
The alleged perpetrators are said to have made several phone calls in an attempt to blackmail the family. One of the family's employees allegedly demanded a sample of the material as proof. This was sent via a technically untraceable e-mail address. However, the Swiss police were able to trace the caller's number back to Kassel. The third defendant is accused of helping the alleged blackmailer to set up the e-mail address for him.
No money was handed over. The men were arrested beforehand. According to the public prosecutor's office, 900 image files and 583 video files were seized.
The 53-year-old from Wuppertal is now accused of attempted extortion in a particularly serious case, and his son of aiding and abetting. The father is still in custody. The arrest warrants for the two other defendants have since been suspended on condition.
Earlier blackmail attempt
The investigation was initiated following a tip-off from Swiss law enforcement authorities. This is not the first attempt to blackmail the family of the former racing driver. In 2017, the Reutlingen District Court in Baden-Württemberg sentenced a 25-year-old man for attempting to blackmail Schumacher's wife Corinna Schumacher for 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. He had given his real account number in an e-mail to Corinna Schumacher.
Schumacher, the record Formula 1 world champion, was seriously injured in a skiing accident at the end of 2013. He has not appeared in public since then.
