Three men have been found guilty in a case of blackmail in an attempt against the large Formula 1 family Michael Schumacher.
The authors demanded 15m euros (12.5 million) from the family to avoid the release of hundreds of private family photos and videos, as well as digitized copies of Schumacher’s medical records.
A district court in Wuppperal, West Germany, sentenced the main defendant to three years in prison, while his son received a suspended six -month sentence and a $ 1,200 (1,000) fine reported Wednesday. The main defendant had previous sentences.
Another defendant, a former family security, received a two-year sentence suspended and a fine of 2,400 euros to help and remove the other two men. Judge Birgit Neubert said the former security employee made the most important contribution to crime through his violation of faith, the DPA reported.
The Schumacher family was threatened with the release of private material at dinner. The Public Prosecutor’s Office said about 900 photos and nearly 600 family videos and Schumacher’s digitalized medical records were confiscated by the authors. A hard disk remained missing.
Representing the Schumacher family, lawyer Thilo Damm said the family would appeal to the case against the former Security Road, against whom they wanted a four-year prison.
While the other two defendants confessed to the charges, the security guard lawyer denied the charges and demanded a release. He said his client had not stolen sensitive data.
The family has been protected by Schumacher from Public View since his serious skiing accident in December 2013. Schumacher was skiing in the French Alps in Merbel when he fell and his head hit a rock, resulting in a brain injury nearly -Fatal. Since transferring from the hospital in September 2014, the seven -time f1 champion has taken care of a family home in Switzerland.
Schumacher withdrew from F1 in 2012 after winning 91 races, and five right titles with Ferrari from 2000-04. The other two German driver’s titles were with Benetton in 1994-95.
