‘Rambo of the Black Forest’ sentenced to three years in prison

32-year-old Yves Rausch, aka ‘the Rambo of the Black Forest’, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

In July, Rausch caused a sensation in the forest near Offenburg, he threatened four policemen with a pistol and took their service weapons before fleeing.

The incident led to a six-day manhunt in the Black Forest involving hundreds of police officers using dogs, helicopters, and drones.

The search brought back memories

of the American film ‘Rambo: First Blood’ (1982) in numerous media. Rausch already had a criminal record when the local police went to look for him in a kind of garden shed on the edge of the forest in Oppenau.

He was said to be staying there illegally after being evicted from his home in Oppenau.

However, Rausch overpowered the officers, one of whom was injured. Then he disappeared heavily armed into the forest, where he was well at home. He was eventually held in a building near Oppenau.

Prosecutors had demanded three years and nine months in prison for hostage-taking and illegal possession of weapons.

According to his lawyer, he is less accountable, and there was no serious hostage situation. The man should be given a suspended sentence, the defense argued.