Criminal sentencing appeal: adoption of prosecution’s reasoning under § 349 Abs. 2 StPO and cumulative punishment incorporating prior district court convictions

The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) dismissed the defendant's criminal appeal as unfounded, thereby upholding the sentencing imposed by the Aachen Regional Court on October 4, 2021, and ordered the defendant to bear the costs of the legal remedy. The dispute concerned a criminal conviction and sentence, with the appellate review encompassing the defendant's liability and punishment in connection with multiple prior convictions from various district courts between 2016 and 2017. The decision was issued under § 349 Abs. 2 StPO, adopting the reasoning provided by the General Federal Prosecutor, and explicitly incorporated the earlier district court judgments into the operative part of the ruling to clarify the scope of the cumulative penalty.