German court rejects Swedish ‘Laserman’ murder case appeal

BERLIN – A German federal court has rejected an appeal by a Swedish man against his conviction for fatally shooting a woman in Frankfurt 26 years ago.

John Ausonius was convicted by the Frankfurt state court in February of murdering restaurant employee Blanka Zmigrod in 1992 and given a life prison sentence. Ausonius allegedly believed the victim, who was Jewish, had stolen his electronic diary.

German prosecutors had reopened the case as part of a nationwide review of suspected far-right killings. Ausonius was already serving a life sentence in Sweden, where he became known as “Laserman” for the gunsight he used in a series of 1990s shootings of immigrants. Sweden extradited him to Germany in 2016.

Germany’s Federal Court of Justice said Tuesday it had thrown out Ausonius’ appeal.