20 years ago, Magnus Gäfgen kidnapped and murdered Jakob von Metzler, who was eleven at the time. The case went down in German history – also because of the controversial actions of the police. After a rejected application for release, Gäfgen will remain in prison until 2025.
The kidnapping and murder of eleven-year-old Jakob von Metzler 20 years ago sparked nationwide horror. On the way home from school, the Frankfurt banker’s son was kidnapped with the aim of extorting one million euros from his parents. The perpetrator has since given himself a new name, previously he was called Magnus Gäfgen. The law student, who was in debt, smothered the eleven-year-old with adhesive tape in his apartment shortly after the kidnapping.
A threat during police interrogation sparked a controversial torture debate. Jakob had already been murdered when the perpetrator wrote to his parents and demanded ransom. During the nightly handover at a bus stop, the police observed him, shadowed him and finally intervened three days later after Gäfgen had made no move to take care of the alleged hostage or to release it. Believing the boy to be alive, police officers threatened to inflict pain on Gäfgen if he revealed the child’s whereabouts. The perpetrator then named the hiding place. Previously, he had lured the police on the wrong track. There was then an international discussion: How far can the police go in situations where human life is in danger?
Jakob’s body was found on a lake near Schluechtern in eastern Hesse. The boy knew his killer vaguely. So he let himself be lured by the then 28-year-old Gäfgen into his apartment on September 27, 2002. The long-established private banker family von Metzler is one of the big patrons in Frankfurt.
The Frankfurt district court found Gäfgen guilty the following year. The perpetrator wanted to live a “luxurious life with rich friends,” the verdict said. The student had wanted the child’s death from the start. The verdict was life imprisonment with particularly serious guilt. This made early release from prison after 15 years legally possible, but practically impossible. The perpetrator filed numerous appeals, but the sentence was not overturned. He is serving his sentence in Kassel.
Because of the threat of pain, the state of Hesse Gäfgen had to pay compensation of 3,000 euros plus interest at his instigation. His dignity had been violated, it said in the verdict. In the meantime, Gäfgen had moved to the European Court of Human Rights. The courts also dealt with the threat of pain during interrogation. The Frankfurt police deputy Wolfgang Daschner, who himself drew attention to this “hardest decision in life” in a memo, was convicted like the interrogator, but fines were only threatened. Daschner was transferred to Wiesbaden – and promoted.
The perpetrator, who changed his name in view of his chances of rehabilitation, applied for a suspended sentence in 2017. In May 2019, the district court in Kassel rejected a release from life imprisonment and set a minimum term of 23 years, a court spokesman said on request. No dismissal is possible before September 2025.
