Justice

Two men were sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday for the murder of a 69-year-old man killed in a high-speed collision during an illegal car race in central Berlin.

A Berlin district court found the 25-year-old and 28-year-old guilty after one of their cars rammed into the jeep driven by the 69-year-old man at speeds of about 160 kilometres an hour during the February 2016 incident.

It said the two men had jumped several red lights before the accident, which occurred in one of the German capital’s main shopping districts.

In handing down its verdict, the court said that the two men were driving in the centre of Berlin at top speed and were determined to win the race.

The court said it considered the cars involved as weapons and therefore representing a danger to the general community.

It said both drivers suffered only minor injuries in the collision, which led to the vehicle driven by the 28-year-old being hurled 70 metres across the road.

During the trial, a traffic psychologist told the court that the 28-year-old had a “massively over-exaggerated” sense of himself.

She told the court that he was “determined to win so as to enhance his ego.”

“However, he had no sense of his own guilt,’’ she said.

Q(dpa/NAN)