In June, a man drives his car into a school class and other passers-by in West Berlin. The teacher dies, 16 people are injured. Whether there will be a process is questionable. The man could have been innocent and admitted to psychiatry.
Almost five months after a car driver drove amok near the Berlin Memorial Church, the public prosecutor’s office applied for his permanent placement in a psychiatric ward in a so-called security procedure. As the authority announced, according to the preliminary assessment of an expert, it cannot be ruled out that the 29-year-old was innocent. She submitted a corresponding application to the Berlin district court.
On June 8, the 29-year-old drove a small car near the Memorial Church on Kurfürstendamm in the center of Berlin into a school class from Hesse and then raced on to capture other people on a sidewalk. A 51-year-old teacher died and 16 people were seriously or critically injured. Finally, the man crashed his car into a shop window. He was arrested and is currently in a psychiatric ward.
According to the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, it is assumed that the man “consciously” steered his vehicle into the people and at least accepted their deaths with approval. She accuses him of murder and 16 attempted murders. At the same time, however, she assumes that the suspect was not guilty of the crime due to a serious mental illness.
In such a case, indictment and normal criminal proceedings are out of the question. Instead, in a so-called security procedure, a decision is made as to whether an accused is housed in a closed psychiatric hospital because of ongoing danger. The stay there is not limited and lasts as long as a danger persists.
