High wire artist Freddy Nock is on trial again

• keystone-sda.ch

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  High wire artist Freddy Nock will stand before the Aargau High Court on Tuesday.

• Claudio Meier

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  The Zofingen district court sentenced him to a partial prison sentence of two and a half years for attempted willful killing of his wife. Nock is now resisting this.

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  The indicted acts, which date back to 2008, involve domestic violence. The woman had not filed a complaint at the time. It was only after the divorce that the allegations were raised as part of the custody dispute over their son.

The high wire artist Freddy Nock is standing before the Aargau High Court on Tuesday. At the end of 2019, the Zofingen District Court sentenced him to a partial prison sentence of two and a half years for attempted willful killing of his wife Ximena Nock.

According to the judgment, Nock should serve ten of the 30 months, and the district court granted him conditional execution for 20 months. Because of the risk of escape and repetition, the judges ordered security detention – Nock was brought to prison directly from the courtroom. A week later, the 55-year-old was released at the behest of the Board of Appeal of the Higher Court.

The indicted acts, which date back to 2008, involve domestic violence. The woman had not filed a complaint at the time. It was only after the divorce that the allegations were raised as part of the custody dispute over their son.

As is usually the case in domestic violence cases, testimony stands against testimony. There were only witnesses in one incident in March 2013: Children from the couple’s previous relationships had heard the noises of the outbreak of violence from the next room.

That night, after the gala for the Swiss Award ceremony, the family stayed in a Zurich hotel. The couple, who were not married at the time, got into an argument, as they often did. According to the indictment, the accused hit the woman’s head against the wall several times.

When she then lay on the bed, he pressed a pillow on her face with both hands. Only when she pretended to be dead did he let go of her. In this case, the district court came up with a guilty verdict for attempted willful homicide.

Both the prosecution and the defense filed appeals shortly after the verdict. The prosecutor had demanded convictions on other charges and a prison sentence of seven and a half years. The defense attorney pleaded for acquittal; the facts are not adequately documented. (SDA)