Suspended sentence for 23-year-old driver in fatal Eckernförde cannabis deal
The Landgericht Kiel sentenced a 23-year-old man from Bremen to one year and six months in prison, suspended, for aiding the sale of cannabis in a drug deal in which a 15-year-old was fatally stabbed in Eckernförde on 11 March. The court accepted that the stabbing was self-defence and dropped the manslaughter charge.
🇩🇪 Landgericht Kiel, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein · Germany
The Landgericht Kiel, the regional court in Kiel, sentenced a 23-year-old man
from Bremen on 6 November 2026 to one year and six months in prison, suspended,
for aiding and abetting the sale of cannabis.[1]The court was convinced that
his use of the knife against a 15-year-old was justified as self-defence.[1]The court found the man acted only as the driver in the alleged drug deal.[1]
The presiding judge, Philipp Wirth, said in his oral reasoning that the youth
opened the car door on the evening of 11 March and attacked the accused with a
knife, and that the accused stabbed without aiming because he feared for his
life.[1]He had originally stood trial at the regional court for manslaughter
over the dispute in a car park in Eckernförde.[1]He spent more than half a
year in pre-trial custody, and the probation period was set at four years.[1]
Prosecutors had also dropped the manslaughter charge during the trial and asked
for three years in prison for selling cannabis.[1]The judgment is not yet
final; a revision can be filed within one week.[1]
According to the court, the 15-year-old and his brother did not intend to pay in
the alleged drug deal, had brought counterfeit money and were armed with a knife
and a blank-firing pistol.[2]The 15-year-old was injured so severely that he
had to be resuscitated and died shortly afterwards on the way to hospital.[2]
The accused was released from pre-trial custody the previous Friday after more
than half a year.[2]A lawyer for the victim’s parents had asked for a
conviction for manslaughter, and after the verdict a woman in the courtroom
confronted the accused loudly.[2]
The court assumed the deal ultimately involved about 400 grams of cannabis.[3]The accused stood in the deal only as the driver, paid a fee of 200 euros.[3]According to the court, the 15-year-old and his elder brother planned to pay the Bremen men with a bundle of counterfeit 50-euro notes in a plastic bag.[3]According to the court, the brother drew a blank-firing pistol and threatened the Bremen man.[3]After the stabbing the two Bremen men fled by car, and the accused turned himself in two weeks later.[3]
Photos and video
The 23-year-old defendant at the Kiel regional court, where he was sentenced to a suspended term; the caption says he spent more than half a year in pre-trial custody. Photo: Ulrich Perrey/dpaPhoto details
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Source: NDRArchive photo of the Kiel regional court used with the report on the verdict. Photo: Ulrich Perrey/dpaPhoto details
No quantity of cannabis was published, so no weight is recorded for the drug deal.
The stern and dpa text says the dispute happened on a car park, while NDR says a dispute between two youths escalated before a supermarket in the town centre; the verdict reports do not reconcile the two locations.
The date 6 November 2026 is the reported verdict day; any revision filed against the judgment is not known.
Bremen is given as the accused's home city; no further identifying details were published.
The stern page picture is a dpa photo of the accused used as a file image, and NDR's photo carries the same photographer's credit, so only the NDR picture is linked as media.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in NDR: The dispute on 11 March had escalated before a supermarket in Eckernförde's town centre and, according to the Kiel prosecutors, was about a deal with cannabis.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in MOPO (Hamburger Morgenpost): The fatal stabbing took place on the evening of 11 March on a car park in Eckernförde in connection with the alleged drug deal.
The dpa report gives the deal as about 400 grams of cannabis; the earlier stern and NDR accounts published no quantity.
The court held that the 15-year-old and his brother planned to rob the Bremen men with counterfeit money, an account the earlier sources did not carry in these terms.
A 24-year-old drug dealer from Detmold was given a suspended sentence on 10 November 2026 after stockpiling almost 1.5 kg of marijuana and 1 kg of hashish in his flat. The court linked the lenient penalty to the significant reduction of punishments following cannabis legalisation in Germany.
Münster Regional Court sentenced four men from Ahaus and Gronau for gang drug trafficking after they grew cannabis and ran a disguised depot in Ahaus. The ringleader received 5 years and 4 months; police counted 327 harvested plants on one plantation and at least 900,000 euros in proceeds.
A court in Hildesheim found all five defendants guilty of building and running a cannabis plantation in Elze, and the paper reports suspended prison sentences. Prosecutors said the three men and two women grew about eight kilograms of marijuana on the plantation and sold it, which had drawn investigators' attention in March 2020.
Bavaria's highest regional court set aside the sentences of a man convicted over hashish and marijuana kept at several homes, holding that the 60-gram allowance must be deducted before a 'large quantity' can be found. He remains convicted of possessing more than 60 grams of cannabis, and a different Passau panel must decide his sentence anew.
