Two presiding Judges in Frank Rickett’s German OneCoin trial have come down with illness.
As a result proceedings have been suspended till August.
Rickett’s trial kicked off last September and was expected to return a verdict by the end of May. Roll on June 1st and that hasn’t happened.
What happened is explained in a May 30th article by Martin Himmelheber for NRWZ;
After an accident, a lay assessor left the procedure at the end of March. Doctors had classified her as unfit to stand trial for more than three months. The supplementary lay judge has taken over for them.
The second lay judge has been ill since the beginning of May. “Due to official medical examinations, it is clear that the lay assessor is no longer able to follow the hearing to a sufficient extent and to understand the content to the required extent,” according to the Münster Regional Court.
As a result, Ricketts trial is scheduled for a complete restart in mid August. This resets the already undertaken 19 days of hearings.
There was concern that Ricketts might get off due to a five-year statute of limitations.
Speaking on the matter, a court representative assured Himmelheber that
the statute of limitations does not play a role.
The indictment is still so young and the allegations are so serious that the statute of limitations is not an issue.
Rickett’s trial is expected to take around fifty days in court. If September put us at a May verdict date, restarting the trial in August puts us at or around April 2023.
That’s of course assuming there aren’t further delays.