Methadone death in Riehen: Basel appeals court reduces sentence to 22 months conditional
The Basel appeals court convicted a 27-year-old of the methadone death of a 15-year-old to 22 months conditional – instead of five years unconditional.
Appeals court delivers milder sentence in Riehen methadone case
The Basel appeals court has convicted a now 27-year-old to a conditional custodial sentence of 22 months, as reported by Google News CH — Crime (de). The court additionally ordered outpatient psychiatric treatment. The man must also pay 29,000 francs in damages to the mother of the deceased young woman. The verdict is not yet final.
The second instance thus departed significantly from the earlier decision: in 2021, the district court had convicted the defendant of intentional killing by omission and suspended the sentence in favour of a treatment facility for young adults – a measure that becomes void under the new verdict.
"This case sits precisely on the boundary between intent and negligence," said the court president at the pronouncement of judgment. The decisive question had been whether the defendant had knowingly accepted a danger or relied on the assumption that nothing bad would happen – a distinction with substantial consequences for sentencing.
The facts date back to 2019. The then 20-year-old had stolen methadone tablets from his mother and given them to a 15-year-old. It is established that he gave her 16 tablets; the young woman may have secretly taken a further 10 tablets. She consumed a total of 26 tablets in a flat in Riehen BS, fell asleep afterwards and was unconscious the following morning. Two weeks later she died in hospital from the effects of the overdose.
"You created a danger," the president told the defendant. He had been present in the flat and should have called the emergency services. The court considered it an aggravating factor that the man knew the dangers of methadone from his own experience: years earlier, he had himself attempted suicide with it. The duty of care towards the underage young woman with less life and consumption experience therefore weighed particularly heavily, according to the judge.
Source: Google News CH — Crime (de)