Questão jurídica principal
Whether the acquittal on the charge of coercion should be overturned because the conduct of stopping the vehicle and the subsequent violence was unlawful.
Decisão extraída
No. The challenged coercion concerned only the obstruction of the victim's onward travel; the blows were correctly treated as bodily harm and not as coercion.
Fundamentação extraída
For Art. 181 StGB, unlawfulness requires a separate justification: the means or purpose must be unlawful, disproportionate, or the combination must be abusive or immoral. The lower court found that the relevant purpose was to stop suspected thieves, which was not itself unlawful. The prosecution's reliance on the later beating concerned a different act; the restraint during the blows was merely incidental and consumed by the bodily-harm offense.