German court: No appeals received over Russian’s conviction

BERLIN (AP) — A Berlin court says none of the parties has appealed against the verdict in the diplomatically sensitive trial of a Russian man who was convicted earlier this month of what judges concluded was the state-ordered killing of a Chechen man. The verdict on Dec. 15 prompted Germany’s foreign minister to expel two Russian diplomats. A few days later, Russia in turn ordered two German diplomats to leave. The brazen daylight killing in Berlin in 2019 of the Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity sparked outrage in Germany. German law allows for all sides in a trial to appeal within a week of the verdict, but the court said on Monday that no one did so.