Boxing champ killer’s 20-year term confirmed
Federal High Court judges dismissed appeals to lower the sentence of a man who stabbed a former boxing champion to death.Judge Brigitte Kunst, who headed the three-member senate in todays (Thurs) trial, said the Chechen defendants 20-year sentence will not be lowered as requested by his lawyer Lennart Binder.Zaurbek Bersanov, 27, was found guilty of stabbing Serbian-born Edip Sekowitsch nicknamed the “Bull of Serbia” five times just metres from the retired boxers bar in Vienna-Wieden on 26 August 2008.Binder claimed his client suffered from post-traumatic stress after being tortured in his home country before fleeing to Austria.Bersanov told OGH judges he acted “out of fear”. He said: “Give me a chance to integrate myself into society. I totally accept my guilt.”The 27-year-olds lawyer explained: “My client was afraid Sekowtisch would crush his head.”Police found the accused sitting on the sidewalk not far from the blood-covered body of Sekowitsch outside the Serbian-born boxers pub.The former boxer who was a WAA light-middleweight world champion in 1988 and European champion the following year reportedly threw Bersanov out for acting aggressively towards other guests.Binder said his client “used his knife in an exaggerated reaction full of fear” against 50-year-old Sekowitsch who died before an ambulance arrived at the scene.OGH judges also dismissed the state prosecutions appeal to turn the 20-year sentence issued last December into life.