HILDESHEIM, Germany — Prince Ernst August of Hannover, husband of Caroline of Monaco, was retried today on charges he assaulted a hotel owner in Kenya in a drunken rage.
The 55-year-old — a distant relative of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and great-grandson of the last German emperor, Wilhelm II — was convicted in 2004 of causing serious bodily harm in the incident and fined euro445,000.
The court ruled he repeatedly hit Josef Brunlehner, owner of a hotel on Lamu Island, with a metal object in January 2000 after becoming irritated at the noise from a disco.
During the trial, Brunlehner testified Ernst August punched him with a metal ring in the chest and abdomen, causing multiple bruises, and shouted abuse at him. The injuries required emergency-room treatment, Brunlehner testified.
The prince’s attorney at the time, Jochen Heidemeier, told the court that his client regretted the incident, but was not fully accountable because he had been drinking and was a person “who flares up under the influence of alcohol and loses control of his actions.”
Ernst August maintains, however, that he only slapped Brunlehner twice, and won the retrial at the end of 2008 when witnesses — including his wife Caroline — testified they could corroborate his story.
If the court finds that no object was used in the assault, it is likely the prince will be convicted of lesser charges and given a lower sentence by the Hildesheim state court.
No plea was entered, as per usual under the German trial system.
Kenyan authorities did not arrest Ernst August after the incident, but it was pursued in Germany where the law allows prosecutors to charge citizens who commit crimes abroad.
It was not the first time Ernst August had a brush with the law.
Among other things, he was fined for attacking a German photographer in 1999 and had his driver’s license suspended for a month in 2003 for speeding on a French highway.
In 2000, Ernst August caused an uproar after press photos showed him urinating outside the Turkish pavilion at the World’s Fair in Hannover.
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