This is the former Mr Germany jailed for shooting a cop in the neck when a specialist SWAT unit were called to evict the far-right extremist from his home.
Adrian Ursache, 44, was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of attempted murder, assault and resistance to law enforcement officers, as well as for the unauthorised possession of a firearm and ammunition by a court in Halle in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The judge found it proven that Ursache, who was crowned as Germany’s most beautiful man in 1998, shot a police officer during the eviction of his property in Reuden.
Presiding judge Jan Stengel said that the court found it proven that the shot was fired from an unlicensed revolver owned by Ursache.
Stengel said that while Ursache fired the shot spontaneously, his far-right convictions opposing the authority and legitimacy of the modern German state were aggravating motives.
Ursache, who scolded the court when he heard the verdict, said he would appeal the decision.
He unsuccessfully tried to claim during the trial that he did not fire a single shot, repeatedly calling for another forensic examination.
The high-profile case is centred on a 500-square-metre plot of land in Reuden in the state of Saxony-Anhalt which Ursache bought in 2004.
Due to financial problems, a court recently ordered the foreclosure of the house and property.
However, Ursache reportedly told a bailiff who was sent to the house that he did not recognise his authority and declined to cooperate.
Ursache is believed to be a member of the far-right Reichsburger (‘Citizens of the Reich’) movement, a largely hidden extremist group whose members reject the current German state’s legitimacy and insist that the German Reich’s 1919 pre-Weimar borders remain in effect.
According to local media, he said that any move to take away his property would be met with violence.
On 25th August, 2016, several hundred cops and a specialist SWAT unit raided the property which was reportedly guarded by Ursache and dozens of Reichsburger supporters.
According to prosecutors, Ursache shot a cop in the neck before being shot multiple times in his upper body.
Ursache and the wounded cop both survived.
According to local media, Ursache is in the process of divorcing his wife Sandra Hoffmann-Ursache, 40, who was crowned Miss Germany two years after he clinched the title of Mr Germany in 1998, after reportedly being fed up with her not supporting his far-right views.
Sandra, who has two sons with Adrian aged 15 and 11, previously defended her husband from the witness box.
However, she never supported her husband’s far-right views, which got him into trouble in the first place, and that is now reportedly the reason why Ursache has filed for divorce.
An inmate at the prison where Ursache is being held said: “He read her a six-page divorce decree that he wrote in his cell.”
Sandra, who had noticeably calmed her husband down in the courtroom on several occasions, had previously told the judges: “I do not share his political views”.
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Story By: Koen Berghuis, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
