Salzburg court gives 20-year-old partly suspended sentence

A 20-year-old Bosnian man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison, partly suspended, for coercion, theft and bodily injury, ORF reported. The most serious charge, armed robbery, was dropped.

The incidents took place in drug circles around Salzburg’s main railway station. Prosecutors alleged the man brutally beat a debtor and threatened him with a knife to collect a debt of 300 euros. The defendant denied the allegations, saying he was not violent and the alleged victim was talking nonsense.

The man has three previous convictions. At 18, he was ordered to complete an anti-violence programme but did not do so. The court ordered him to take part in the programme again, and he acknowledged it was necessary.

He had spent three months in pre-trial detention, which covered the unconditional part of his sentence. He was released on Friday after the judgment became final.