The man has been in prison for 27 years for double murder. He has been allowed to leave prison several times. But now he is absconding.
A double murderer has used his first unaccompanied leave to escape in Berlin. The 50-year-old has been wanted since late Thursday afternoon, the Senate Justice Administration announced on Friday in response to a request. The offender should have returned to Tegel prison by 5 p.m. from his approved leave.
According to the justice administration, the man has been in prison for 27 years. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995 for double murder. A justice spokesman did not provide any details.
According to his information, the offender has been granted regular leave since 2005. The prison authorities are constitutionally obliged to allow such relaxations, also in order to prepare those affected for a regulated life in freedom, they said. There have been no complaints so far.
Before the man was allowed to leave prison unaccompanied, a “comprehensive examination procedure” was carried out, according to the justice administration. This included a forensic-psychiatric report from an external expert. According to his assessment, the relaxation of the restrictions was justifiable. “There was no evidence that the prisoner would not return,” said the justice administration.
Last February, a convicted rapist used an escorted outing in Berlin to escape. The 54-year-old was in preventive detention at Tegel Prison. The offender was caught in Schleswig-Holstein after around three days.
