This is the incredible moment the son of Michael Schumacher’s alleged blackmailer was dragged off camera by his family’s lawyer as he gave a blundering interview about his father’s case.
Former bodyguard Marcus Fritsche, 53, is on trial along with his IT expert son Daniel Lins, 30, and his friend, Yilmaz Tozturkan, also 53, after being accused of trying to extort £12 million from the Schumacher family, who have been looking after the legendary racing driver following a life-changing crash he suffered while skiiing in the French Alps in 2013.
The trio are said to have demanded the money after Fritsche was dismissed from his job at the race ace’s Swiss home in 2021 but not before taking 1,500 images, 200 videos and extensive medical notes with him.
The Schumachers have been incredibly protective of Michael since his accident, and have not released any photos or interviews about him since the incident.
During an interview outside the courtroom, one of Fritsche’s sons was seen being dragged away from a TV interview.
The son, named by Bild as Noah L., told Welt, a German broadcaster: ‘Blackmail is when I threaten someone with violence. But if I go to you now and say, “I have something here, do you want to buy it,” that is not blackmail.
‘In my opinion it was a sales pitch – agreed with lawyers and contracts. In my opinion it was not blackmail.’
As he added that he believed the pre-trial detention of his father was ‘a bit excessive’, the family’s lawyer, Hartmut Moyzio was seen dragging the son out of frame and into the courtroom.
The son told Welt, a German broadcaster: ‘Blackmail is when I threaten someone with violence. But if I go to you now and say, “I have something here, do you want to buy it,” that is not blackmail’
Formula one World champion Ferrrari driver Michael Schumacher (L) poses in Madonna di Campiglio with his wife Corinna 16 January 2003
The son’s interview came despite the fact that Fritsche reportedly told Wuppertal District Court: ‘I take responsibility for it. I did the stupid thing.’
According to German outlet Heute, he addressed lawyer representing the Schumacher family and said: ‘Please tell the family that I am really sorry.’
Schumacher’s manager Sabine Kehm, 60, told the court that she was the one who was called about the blackmail plot.
’I got a call, and it was a number we didn’t recognise, so at first we didn’t answer as we don’t usually to unrecognised numbers’, she said.
‘But it kept calling and calling so in the end I answered, and it was a man who said he had pictures of Michael, he said that if the family didn’t want them published onto the dark web he could help.
‘He said he was a go between, and we would have to pay 15 million Euro, he said the money was for the pictures and his go between service.’
The material arrived via a secure email address Lins had set up for his father in June this year, to Schumacher’s office at his family home in Gland, Switzerland and police were alerted and the trio arrested two weeks later.
Ms Kehm said: ’I recognised them as private photos and when I saw the I thought they could have only come from an employee of ours.
Fritsche allegedly recruited his long-term friend Yilmaz Tozturkan (pictured) and his IT expert son to extort the staggering sum from the family who had employed him
For eight years bodyguard Markus Fritsche was given unique access to the most intimate aspects of the legend’s medical procedures
Markus Fritsche (L), Daniel Lins (fourth to the right wearing black roll neck) and Yilmaz Tozturkan (behind) in court today
‘I was sure it had to be someone from our internal circle that worked for us, I was suspicious from the first moment that it was someone who no longer worked for us.’
Ms Kehm described how a nurse involved with Schumacher’s care following his accident ‘appeared to get on very well with Markus Fritsche’.
She added: ‘I remember I used to see Fritsche and this particular nurse standing together talking.
‘But eventually she left, we had issues with her, we had problems with how care was delivered.’
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
