Detlev Mehlis

Detlev Mehlis (* 1949 in Berlin ) is a German lawyer and senior public prosecutor in Berlin. He became known for his investigations into the attack on the discotheque “ La Belle ” and as a UN special investigator from May 2005 to January 2006 for the attack on Rafiq al-Hariri , the former Lebanese Prime Minister.

Life

Detlev Mehlis grew up in West Berlin and studied law there. Since his second state examination in 1980 he has been working for the Berlin public prosecutor's office. There he was initially responsible for youth and youth protection matters. He soon moved to the department for criminal matters with political relevance and has since been assigned to the Federal Prosecutor General at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe. In 1992 he was promoted to senior public prosecutor at the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office.

In the "Department P" of the Berlin Senate Administration he was active in investigations against left-wing extremism and squatters . In addition, Mehlis operated the procedure for extensive theft of Nazi documents from the American-administered Berlin Document Center .

After the attack on the French cultural center "Maison de France" in August 1983, he proved the complicity of the terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez . Mehlis claimed the success of the search against Johannes Weinrich in Yemen in 1995, who was considered Carlos' deputy. Because of his persistence, Mehlis has often been referred to as the "terrier" since then.

Bomb attack on the La Belle discotheque

Mehlis gained international fame as a prosecutor in the trial of the bomb attack on the La Belle discotheque in Berlin in April 1986, in which three people were killed and more than 200 people were injured. By judgment of the Berlin Regional Court in November 2001, not only the four defendants were sentenced to long prison terms. The judges also confirmed the allegations brought by Mehlis that the Libyan state was jointly responsible for the attack. Libya then paid compensation of US $ 35 million to the victims and their bereaved through a foundation . The Ronald Reagan government justified its air strike on Tripoli (Libya) in April 1986 ( Operation El Dorado Canyon ) as a retaliation for the Berlin bomb attack and previous terrorist attacks.

The court certified Mehlis, however, prohibited interrogation methods in the La Belle case. Mehlis had given the defendant Musbah Abulgasem Eter the erroneous impression that he could expect a reduction in sentence if he made a confession, according to the decision of the 39th Major Criminal Chamber of the Berlin Regional Court. There was talk of a deception by the investigator. Still, both Eter and the rest of the defendants were convicted.

Hariri assassination

Between May 2005 and January 2006, Mehlis worked on behalf of the UN as head of the international independent commission of inquiry of the United Nations (UNIIIC) with the rank of Under-Secretary-General with an international team of up to 110 people to investigate the car bomb attack of February 14, 2005 in Beirut, in which the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and another 22 people were killed.

On October 20, 2005, he submitted an interim report of his investigations to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and on October 25, reported the status of his investigations to the UN Security Council . The report contained indications that Syrian officials and the former security services of Lebanon were involved. The report went straight to the press and sparked some political tensions, including calls for international sanctions against Syria and calls for the resignation of Émile Lahoud , the pro-Syrian president of Lebanon. On December 10, 2005, Mehlis submitted a second report on the investigation into the Hariri attack to the Security Council. In this, the evidence that indicated that Syrian authorities were involved in the attack were once again confirmed. At the end of December 2005, Detlev Mehlis resigned as head of the investigation.

Mehlis continued to receive personal and police protection after his return to the public prosecutor's office at the Berlin Higher Regional Court .

From January 2010 to April 2011, Mehlis headed the EPJUST program in the Philippines on behalf of the EU Commission to combat politically motivated murders of human rights defenders, activists and journalists.

honors and awards

• 2006 Cross of Merit, First Class for his work in Lebanon.
• 2006 Ordre national du Mérite (France).

Web links

• Melanie Amann: Der Fahnder from Germany ( Memento from May 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), In: Financial Times Deutschland , October 21, 2005
• The fall of his life ( star no. 43/2005)
• First report by the UN Commission of Inquiry (United Nations S2005 / 662) in English. (PDF file; 3 kB)
• Second report by the UN Commission of Inquiry (United Nations S2005 / 775) in English. (PDF file; 3 kB)
• Markus Bickel: "Assad cannot survive without his Stasi". Chief Prosecutor Mehlis on Syria. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . May 19, 2011, accessed on May 19, 2011 (Interview with Mehlis on the 2011 protests in Syria ). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Address by the French Ambassador Claude Martin, on the occasion of the award of the insignia of a knight of the National Order of Merit to Detlev Mehlis. (pdf; 32 kB) (No longer available online.) In: France - Info. French Embassy Press and Information Department, October 18, 2006, formerly the original ; Retrieved May 2, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
2. ↑ "Detlev from Germany". In: Tagesschau . Archived from the original on May 27, 2009 ; Retrieved May 2, 2009 . 
3. ^ Gregory Douglas: Fakes & Frauds of the Fourth Reich. June 12, 2002, accessed May 22, 2009 . 
4. ^ Berlin chief public prosecutor in Beirut: Detlev Mehlis is looking for Hariri's murderer. In: The world online. Retrieved May 2, 2009 . 
5. ↑ Days of the "Terrier". In: The world online. Retrieved May 2, 2009 . 
6. ^ Sigrid Averesch: reprimand for the public prosecutor: The judges in the Berlin La Belle trial accuse the prosecution of deception. In: Berliner Zeitung . July 11, 1998, accessed June 8, 2015 . 
7. ↑ The central witness in the Mehlis Report is a convicted fraudster. In: Spiegel Online. October 22, 2005, accessed May 1, 2009 . 
8. ↑ Detlev Mehlis. In: SWR1 people. Retrieved May 2, 2009 . 
9. ↑ Berlin investigators honored for his work in Lebanon: Senior Public Prosecutor Mehlis receives Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class. (No longer available online.) In: Senate Department for Justice Berlin, press release. March 29, 2006, archived from the original on November 28, 2007 ; Retrieved May 2, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ Detlev Mehlis receives the French National Order of Merit. (No longer available online.) In: Senate Department for Justice Berlin, press release. October 18, 2006, archived from the original on November 28, 2007 ; Retrieved May 2, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.