Hearings in the Schumacher family's blackmail case will continue.

      An appeal hearing has begun in Wuppertal connected to the case of the blackmail of Michael Schumacher’s family. More than a year ago German prosecutors charged three men who are alleged to have been involved in a plot to demand €15 million and threatened to publish private photo and video material on the darknet.

      Apparently at least some of the footage shows the former Formula 1 driver strapped to his bed after the severe traumatic brain injury he sustained on a ski slope in the French Alps in December 2013.

      The trial at first instance concluded in February, but the story did not end there because both sides appealed its decisions, and the hearings resumed today.

      According to the German press, Judge Markus Quantius immediately made it clear he was taking a very hard line and that the perpetrators had virtually no chance. But the Schumacher family also has little reason to hope: they believe the sentence handed down by the district court was too lenient and are insisting on a harsher punishment.

      The judge’s remarks had an immediate effect: the 31‑year‑old son of the main defendant has already withdrawn his appeal. Under the sentence he was to receive six months’ imprisonment, but suspended. In effect this meant that the first‑instance court’s decision came into legal force.

      But the hearings concerning the two other defendants are not finished. One of them faces three years behind bars — he is a 54‑year‑old Wuppertal resident with multiple prior convictions; the other, who once worked in the security service for the seven‑time world champion’s family, received a two‑year suspended sentence and was ordered to pay a fine of €2,400.

      At today’s proceedings all three defendants refused to say anything, although at the first trial two of them confessed. The lawyer representing the Schumacher family in particular points out that at the first trial the prosecution had insisted on a four‑year term for the former bodyguard.

      Those hearings took place in February, and Corinna Schumacher, Michael’s wife, testified then, saying: “From my point of view, he was the main instigator. But what shocks me most is his treachery, for which he must be punished.”

      But the judge’s argument is that he did not directly participate in the criminal act, and nobody received any money. The hearings in Wuppertal will continue in the second half of November.