The district court of Munich I convicted football world champion Jérôme Boateng on Wednesday in his appeal process for bodily harm. It imposed a fine of 120 daily rates of 10,000 euros.

The 34-year-old defender was accused of insulting, hitting and injuring his then partner, who is acting as a joint plaintiff in the proceedings, on a Caribbean vacation in 2018. Boateng was sentenced to a fine of 1.8 million euros last year. He, the public prosecutor and his ex-girlfriend as joint plaintiffs appealed against this decision by the Munich District Court.

The public prosecutor’s office had demanded a prison sentence of one and a half years for Boateng on Wednesday. According to prosecutor Stefanie Eckert, this prison sentence could be suspended, and the probationary period should be set at three years. In addition, the public prosecutor’s office demanded a payment of 1.5 million euros, which should benefit, among other things, victim and women’s aid organizations. The co-plaintiff joined the claims and spoke of a “David-versus-Goliath fight” that her client had to wage against her famous ex-boyfriend.

Boateng’s defense, however, demanded an acquittal of the charge of bodily harm. Boateng is someone “who was actually convicted before he got up in the morning,” said his lawyer Peter Zuriel. “A prominent person cannot defend himself in the same way that a run-of-the-mill person would.”