Berlin court sentences palliative care doctor to life imprisonment for 15 murders
A 41-year-old former palliative care doctor was sentenced to life imprisonment in Berlin for the murder of 15 patients. The court additionally ordered preventive detention.
Berlin court sentences palliative care doctor to life imprisonment for 15 murders
A Berlin court sentenced a 41-year-old former palliative care doctor to life imprisonment on Wednesday for the deliberate killing of 15 patients. The news agency DPA reported on the verdict. In addition to the life sentence, the court ordered preventive detention – an extraordinary measure in Germany designed to prevent the convicted man from leaving prison after serving his sentence. The doctor is also permanently banned from practising medicine.
According to the court ruling, the doctor administered fatal drug combinations to three male and twelve female patients between 2021 and 2024. "These patients wanted to live," said judge Sylvia Busch, emphasising that the victims had trusted the doctor, who had unilaterally decided their fate. She described the defendant as a serial killer and added that there was suspicion he had killed further patients.
The youngest of the proven victims was a 25-year-old woman, the oldest a 94-year-old. All patients were seriously ill, but according to expert reports they were not in an immediate dying state.
The defendant refused to testify for months. At the end of June, he broke his silence and claimed he had wanted to make the sick patients suffer.
In Germany, life imprisonment theoretically allows for conditional release after a minimum of 15 years. The ordered preventive detention is designed to prevent this. Preventive detention is not considered a punishment but rather a special preventive measure and protection of the public, which is why it offers milder conditions than a prison sentence.
Source: Echo24
Source: Google News CZ — Crime (cs)