Hugo Portmann

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Hugo Portmann (born November 23, 1959 ) is a Swiss bank robber who gained notoriety through his multiple attempts to escape with new crimes and the resulting long imprisonment of 35 years.

Life

Portmann was born out of wedlock in 1959. He spent part of his childhood with his mother, but mainly in various foster families and homes. At the age of 20, he drove a forklift into his manager's office at a concrete factory in Adliswil and tore the safe out of the wall. After the fact he fled to Bordeaux , where he joined the Foreign Legion and was then deployed in Africa.

After returning to Switzerland in 1983, he raided two branches of Zürcher Kantonalbank . While on the run, he was shot, arrested and then sentenced to 12 years in prison. During a detention leave in 1988 he managed to escape, soon afterwards he robbed a bank in Adliswil and was arrested again. During his imprisonment in the Ticino prison "La Stampa" he won the trust of the prison director there, who allowed him to take part in a mountain run. He used this to escape, but was soon captured again. In 1999 he escaped from the semi-open prison a Grison prison by towering as high shoveling snow a pile that he could jump from there over the prison wall. His former cell neighbor Walter Stürm , also a so-called "escape king", then persuaded him to another bank robbery. Together they wanted to take the family of a bank director hostage in order to force the safe to be opened. The plan failed and the two criminals were arrested again.

Hugo Portmann refused any therapy throughout his life, even if it would have shortened his prison term. On the contrary, while still in prison, he criticized the fact that, for example, sex offenders were released early by cleverly pretending to be successful in therapy. A guard in his last prison, the Pöschwies correctional facility , described him as "honest and stubborn as a goat ". An expert opinion from 2008 attested Portmann a “clear risk of relapse” for robbery and theft. In 2011, the Prison Office established vocational training, reading and spelling courses and “crime-oriented therapy” as conditions for parole. Portmann then went on a hunger strike , claiming that the therapy was only an "alibi exercise intended to extend his detention." Another expert opinion attested to him in 2017 that there was "no psychological disorder requiring treatment that could be linked to his offenses." His risk of relapse was thus assessed as low and Hugo Portmann was released from prison in July 2018 after 35 years in prison. Since then he has been employed as a garbage collector for the city of Zurich .

Due to his criminal offenses, the intransigence with which he refused any therapy and thus a reduction in prison terms, as well as his general criticism of such therapies, Portmann repeatedly attracted media attention during his time in prison. His release and his way into a life outside the prisons were therefore the reason for numerous reports and a talk show appearance on TeleZüri's “TalkTaily” .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Sacha Batthyany: The most famous bank robber in Switzerland is at large again: How did he find his way back to life after 35 years in prison? In: NZZ am Sonntag . September 14, 2019, accessed October 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ The crazy story of Hugo Portmann. 20min.ch, February 28, 2018, accessed on October 9, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Margrit spokesman: Delict-oriented psychotherapy: "I'll break out in any case, if necessary with violence!" In: The time . March 5, 2018, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed October 9, 2019]).
  4. ^ Daniel Foppa: Bank robber Hugo Portmann on hunger strike . In: Tages-Anzeiger . December 21, 2011, ISSN  1422-9994 ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed October 9, 2019]).
  5. ↑ 60 years BLICK: Hugo Portmann sat behind bars for 35 years. In: Blick.ch. October 9, 2019, accessed October 9, 2019 .
  6. ↑ The most famous Swiss bank robber: "In the penitentiary you are made ready". Aargauer Zeitung , April 24, 2019, accessed on October 9, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Portmann, Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss bank robbers and prison escapees
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1959