A father and his son, on trial since Tuesday in Germany, admitted to having wanted to blackmail Michael Schumacher’s family by threatening to publish photos of the former Formula 1 champion.
The main accused, Yilmaz T., is suspected of having tried to extract 15 million euros from the racing driver’s family by threatening to publish photos and videos on the darknet, the hidden and opaque side of the web. Accused of complicity, his son Daniel allegedly helped him send data from a technically untraceable email address. “The main accused and his son have confessed,” a spokeswoman for the Wuppertal court (west of Germany) told AFP.
In addition to the two accused, a third man, who worked as a security guard for Michael Schumacher’s family until March 2021, also found himself in court on Tuesday. He is suspected of having sold to the main accused, between October 2022 and May 2024, photos and videos showing Michael Schumacher before and after his skiing accident in 2013, which he allegedly copied without permission when he was employed by the family of the pilot. The exact amount he demanded to transmit this data is not known but “a 5-figure amount” is mentioned.
Since his accident at the end of 2013 in the French winter sports resort of Méribel, Michael Schumacher has not been seen in public and has been kept away from the media. The seven-time F1 champion suffered a serious head injury, spent almost six months in an induced coma and is being treated at his home in Switzerland.
The eldest of the blackmailers, in pre-trial detention, risks between 1 and 15 years in prison. His son, accused of complicity, risks a lesser sentence and is free. Several hearings are planned in this trial until mid-February.
