Osilnica Man Gets 15 years for Attempted Murder of Neighbour

By , 04 Jun 2021, 12:14 PM News
The village of Papeži The village of Papeži Google Map

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STA, 4 June 2021 - A man from the village of Papeži in the municipality of Osilnica (S) has been sentenced to 15 years and four months in prison for an attempted murder of his neighbour in September 2018, as the lower instance ruling has been confirmed by the Ljubljana Higher Court.

The prison sentence for Jože Šercer also includes counts of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, the newspapers Dnevnik and Večer reported on Friday.

On 20 September 2018, he took his shotgun and shot at the neighbour as she was leaving her home to go to work. He hit her in the right arm and stomach, but the woman managed to escape and survive the attack.

The alleged motive is that he could not cope with the neighbour having a new partner less than a year after her husband's death, according to the newspaper Slovenske Novice.

Šercer admitted already in the pre-trial investigation that he had been watching and following the woman for a while, and that on the day of the attack he had been waiting for her hidden in the bushes for two hours.

According to Dnevnik and Večer, Šercer claimed during the trial that he did not intend to kill the woman, but only scare her with the shot.

His lawyer Samo Mirt Kavšek said that his client was very affected by such a high sentence for such an act, as he had never intended to take the woman's life.

"The sentence ... which in my opinion departs from the usual case law, actually represents a life sentence for my client," he said. If he serves the whole sentence, Šercer will be 80 years old at the time of release from prison.

The lawyer has announced an appeal on a point of law at the Supreme Court.

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