A man has been sentenced to three years in a German prison for stealing police weapons and evading arrest in the woods, causing a huge manhunt.
The regional court in the southwestern city of Offenburg convicted Yves Rausch, 32, of illegal possession of weapons, resistance to arrest, serious damage and hostage-taking.
The sentence was just below the three years and nine months requested by the prosecution during the one-month trial.
Rausch, nicknamed the “Black Forest Rambo,” was arrested in July near the French-border town of Oppenau after a six-day search that earned him national headlines.
He was found sitting in a bush with five pistols and an ax and arrested. Rausch wounded an agent in the foot with the ax, leaving him permanently unable to work.
He had fled into the woods after having managed to disarm four policemen, prompting a huge search operation. About 2,500 agents combed the area with the help of special forces, helicopters, sniffer dogs and thermal imaging cameras.
Rausch’s case sparked media comparisons with the action hero of the 1980s Rambo after images of him appeared in the woods dressed in combat gear.
At the start of the trial, on January 15, his lawyer read a statement from Rausch in which he admitted to having come out with the officers’ weapons, but said it meant no harm and feared arrest.
“I am a person who loves freedom,” the statement said.
His lawyer had disputed the charge of hostage-taking and was seeking an 18-month suspended sentence.
The drama began when police were informed of a suspicious man hanging around a cabin in the Black Forest. Four officers sent to the site said he cooperated at first, but suddenly threatened them with a gun and had them hand over the weapons before fleeing with them.
Police had previously said he could also carry a bow and arrow.
Oppenau’s chief prosecutor, Herwig Schaefer, described Rausch as a “weapon monster” with a “great affinity for weapons.”
Rausch has a long criminal record, including charges related to illegal possession of weapons, theft and bodily injury.
In 2010 she received a three-and-a-half-year juvenile sentence after shooting an acquaintance with a crossbow, seriously injuring her.
Police found child pornography on his cell phone while investigating him for possession of explosives in 2019.
He also received an eight-month suspended sentence for inciting hatred when he was 15 after modifying letters on a sign for a youth organization to say “Missing Jews“Or” the Jews are gone. “
They said he had also built a fake bomb and had previously made anti-Semitic statements and used Nazi swastikas and SS symbols. Prosecutors at the trial, however, ruled out a political motive.