The former policeman told the court that he had looked forward to the trip. He said he felt betrayed when his sister eventually dropped the subject before telling him that she would go on the trip with her husband and parents-in-law, without him.
The statement was met with further questioning from the well-prepared judge, who argued that the original testimonies of the defendant do not underpin this claim. The defendant reportedly only cited this particular reason during his fifth hearing with the examining magistrate.
The former policeman told the court that he had made a grave mistake. The president of the court then replied that the events cannot be labelled a mere mistake. She also questioned his claim that he had panicked and been under shock. According to the president, he must have been very good at hiding these strong emotions.
At the beginning of Friday's hearing, the defendant argued that he had given nonsensical statements at the beginning of the investigation. He argued that he had initially lied to police after realising that the poison he had given his sister and her husband had in fact been been deadly potassium cyanide. He explained that his hopes that their deaths had not been his fault had crumbled after that realisation. The defendant argued that he had been completely surprised when his sister and her husband suddenly collapsed in front of him. He told the court that he had been unable to deal with the situation when he realised that he was to blame for their deaths.
The judge countered the defendant's argumentation by stressing that he had actively searched the dark web for poison that cannot be detected in an autopsy. "You need to come up with a good explanation here," she told the defendant. The latter replied that "it does not look very good at first sight."
He also claimed that he did not remember asking a colleague of his if he would be interested in moving to the apartment of the defendant's dead sister. He conceded that he had given three to four unfavourable statements but argued that they leave a lot of room for interpretation.
The next hearing will take place on Tuesday.
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