A Vienna court has sentenced a 55-year-old Hungarian man to nine years in prison for fatally beating a fellow countryman at the city’s main train station, according to “Die Presse”..
Jurors at the Vienna Regional Court on Tuesday convicted him of intentional grievous bodily harm resulting in death but unanimously rejected a murder charge.
The attack occurred on April 7, 2025, in the waiting hall of the busy Hauptbahnhof. Surveillance footage showed the assailant raining 11 punches on the victim’s face. The 37-year-old, also homeless and intoxicated, managed to walk away but died the next day from severe head trauma and internal bleeding.
Forensic expert Christoph Reisinger testified the man likely would have survived if bystanders had summoned medical help. Several passengers were within arm’s reach during the assault, yet none intervened. One man sat motionless even as the victim’s head struck his shoulder; a woman across the aisle continued scrolling on her phone. Prosecutor Kerstin Wagner-Haase called the indifference “as shocking as the brutality itself.”
The two men had met only days earlier on a train from Budapest. Both were living rough around the station and had been drinking heavily when an argument escalated.
After the beating, the victim boarded a commuter train to Vienna Airport, where cameras recorded him wandering before he collapsed in Terminal 3. He was airlifted to a hospital but could not be saved.
Police identified the suspect through meticulous review of security footage. A breakthrough came when a plainclothes officer recognized him at the station on April 10, leading to his arrest.
In court, the defendant admitted the assault but denied murderous intent. “I did something evil, I’m truly sorry,” he told the jury. His lawyer argued he meant only to hurt, not kill, and suggested the injuries could have worsened later from a fall.
The presiding judge called the violence “extraordinarily brutal” and reminded him: “You beat a man to death.” The nine-year sentence falls within the five-to-15-year range and was accepted by both sides.
