Justice case Robert Willi

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The Robert Willi case is a Swiss judicial case in which the mechanic Robert Willi († 1996 or 1997; father of Jean Willi ) was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1953 for the murder of his wife. Willi's retrial efforts received support from journalists but were unsuccessful.

Judicial case

The waitress Hedwig Willi was found on April 29, 1953 in Utengasse in Basel, hanging on a linen rope from a window cross in her apartment on the second floor. For the police, the fire department and the family doctor Peter Mundwyler, it was suicide. Because the woman was hanging on the facade of the house and because the police found husband Robert Willi and eight-year-old stepson Jean sleeping in the same room, investigator Walter Burkhard pursued the idea of ​​a murder. Salomon Schönberg carried out the first inquest shortly before his death; his subordinate Jürg Im Obersteg took over the case; in order to find evidence that would point to a murder case, he pulled Max Frei-Sulzeradded. The investigation was "so sloppy that an exact reconstruction of the occurrences was no longer possible". "Even the depressive disposition of the woman, who [had] repeatedly expressed suicidal intentions, [was] ignored by the investigating authorities and the court." On December 2, 1953, Robert Willi was involved in a circumstantial trial - as there were no witnesses - Sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Willis Vormund, the journalist and court reporter Ernst Würgler-Preiswerk (1904–1985), was convinced of his innocence from the start, and he fought, together with Hans Martin Sutermeister , in the Swiss Observer for a revision in favor of Robert Willis.

“On the basis of careful investigations, the observer came to the conclusion in 1960 that a revision of the procedure was necessary. At the end of February 1962 he brought the Robert Willi matter to the public. ... In the eight years and nine months that Robert Willi has already been behind bars, nothing new has emerged that speaks for his guilt, but something that speaks for his innocence: Missing eyewitnesses, missing motive, missing criminal predispositions and missing Lying ... "

- Alfred A. Haesler

Willi refused a pardon during his imprisonment, stating that he was innocent in the hope of an appeal. Around Christmas 1964, Willi tried to kill himself by hanging, which failed.

“… At the end of August 1970 […] the observer had to establish that the last step in the tragedy of the man fighting for his rights did not lead to his rehabilitation. Thanks to [Ernst Würgler-Preiswerk] a new revision was possible. Eugen Läuppi ] prepared a private report in which he convincingly demonstrated that the criminological and medical conclusions of the official experts can be challenged . However, the judiciary destroys Willis' hope. ... Robert Willi wants his right, not mercy. He waived early release because of good conduct. The public prosecutor, however, assumes that he is “stubborn” and that the retrial has “a material purpose”. ... they closed their eyes to the injustice committed against Robert Willi in order to preserve the reputation of infallibility in this wrong way and at the same time to spare the canton ... the grip on the state treasury, which would be an inevitable side effect of an acquittal of Willis . "

- Alfred A. Haesler

Like many others, the columnist for the Basler Zeitung , Hanns U. Christen , “who followed the trial as a journalist for the National-Zeitung ”, believed Robert Willi to be innocent. Robert Willi died in 1996 or 1997 without his case being revised / rehabilitated, although "a journalist [probably Ernst Würgler-Preiswerk (1904–1985)] collected 500 pages of exculpatory material after the verdict". "Robert Willi stubbornly served his sentence and waived early release from prison."

reception

Willi's son Jean Willi published the novel Sweet Home in 1999, which tells "the story of a youth in the shadow of [the] miscarriage of justice" of his father. The importance of the Ernst Würgler Prize work for Robert Willi is clearly expressed in the novel. For Martin Suter, Sweet Home is “an authentic novel. And not just because it is based on facts ”.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Hans Martin Sutermeister . Summa Iniuria: A Pitaval of Errors of Justice . Basel: Elfenau, 1976, pp. 475-476.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Raphael Suter . The book is a kind of rehabilitation. In: Basler Zeitung . April 9, 1999.
  3. ^ A b Alfred A. Häsler : Strong for the weak . 55 years of contemporary history: The Swiss Observer (with photo by Robert Willi). Verlagsgesellschaft Beobachter AG, Glattbrugg 1982, ISBN 3-280-01418-2 , No chance for Robert Willi, p. 89-90 .
  4. ^ Basler Zeitung. April 7, 1999.
  5. ^ Jean Willi : Sweet Home . bilgerverlag , Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-908010-40-3 , p. Spine .