Karl Otto Haas
Karl Otto Haas (* 1949 ; † 1993 ) was an Austrian murderer. He was a murder convicted prisoner who killed again while on leave and was finally shot while trying to escape. His case led, among other things, to stricter measures regarding releases and conditional dismissals .
Murder and conviction
On December 6, 1973, Karl Otto Haas killed a French exchange teacher after attempting rape in her sub-rented room in Graz with innumerable knife wounds and sent death threats to a secretary and a landlady in Graz. The carpenter , who was known to the police due to several break-ins and acts of violence , was then advertised for a search throughout Austria and was accidentally recognized by a driver on a country road near Gratkorn five days later . This alerted the gendarmerie and, supported by two other men, was able to overpower Haas. Haas made a murder confession at the gendarmerie post. In 1974 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for dangerous threats, attempted rape and murder and transferred to the Graz-Karlau prison.
Imprisonment in Karlau
His earliest possible release after 15 years in prison was refused on November 22nd, 1988 by the Graz Executive Court for special and general preventive reasons. However, on December 30, 1988, Haas was transferred to the release facility by the prison administration, where he was admitted to guarded work outside the prison over forty times by September 1989. On September 30, 1989 he fled to the psychologist's office after working outside, but turned himself in to the gendarmerie the next day and received three weeks of house arrest as a fine.
His next application for conditional release was again rejected on December 19, 1989 by the Graz Executive Court. The decisive factor for this was the opinion of a court-sworn university professor of psychiatry who, from a forensic-psychiatric point of view, could not make a favorable prognosis for Haas with regard to his act, his past life and his personality.
Imprisonment in Mittersteig
On July 12, 1991, Haas was transferred to the Vienna Mittersteig prison. This is an institution for sane, mentally abnormal lawbreakers (enforcement of measures) , in which the director of the institution could order the deviations from the regular execution adapted to the characteristics of the prisoner, e.g. B. therapeutic exits, detention breaks and free walks. Contrary to some media reports, however, Karl Otto Haas was never in the execution of the measures there. This was only created in January 1975 and, due to the existing rule of law, could not be applied to offenders who had been convicted before this period. Instead, Haas was in the process of releasing long-term prisoners who, due to the institution's socio-therapeutic infrastructure, required more intensive care.
Haas himself had applied for his transfer in writing to the Vienna-Mittersteig prison and the Federal Ministry of Justice . After a subsequent conversation with the Mittersteiger prison director and a diagnostic procedure in the district court prison in Korneuburg , the prison director gained the impression that a therapeutic intervention was indicated for Karl Otto Haas and applied for the transfer.
In Mittersteig, Haas took part in weekly psychotherapies and, according to the head of the institution, was considered committed and cooperative. In August 1992, Haas was given the opportunity to participate in the social training at the monthly consultation on the relaxation of the prison system, which was attended by the director of the institution, her deputy, the head of the psychiatric service, a psychologist, a social worker, an officer from the outdoor section and a representative of the prison officer and approved at group exits. In addition, from September 1992 he was allowed to attend a course at the Economic Development Institute in Vienna in order to obtain the master craftsman's examination in the carpentry trade.
From October 1992, he was granted therapeutic exits and breaks in prison lasting several hours to three days, especially on days and weekends when there was no course, which Haas said he spent with a mother of four from Vienna , whom he met through correspondence in 1989 . She had already visited Haas, who was still imprisoned in Karlau, thirteen times and had taken part in social training with Haas and a social worker in Mittersteig.
On March 1, 1993, the Mittersteiger facility management at the Vienna Regional Court advocated the conditional release of Karl Otto Haas and proposed a forensic psychiatric expert opinion, which was prepared by a court-appointed university professor of psychology by April 2. It stated that due to Haas' personality structure, conditional release could not be recommended. On June 21, 1993, the court denied parole due to general preventive concerns. However, it was stated that it would be advantageous for the further development of the convict if he could receive the status of a free-man for a longer period.
Escape and more murder
The therapeutic breaks in detention and exits were continued, and outdoor activities were intensified. On November 5, 1993, Karl Otto Haas did not return to the institution after a release and did not attend the course at the Institute for Economic Development. By then, he had been approved for 113 multi-hour and ten three-day exits.
On the day of his escape he stabbed the 13-year-old son of his pen friend in Vienna and attacked a woman 17 days later in a chapel near Innsbruck , who survived seriously injured. During the subsequent alarm manhunt, Haas was shot while attempting to arrest.
Effects
There was great media and public interest, whereupon Justice Minister Nikolaus Michalek faced a debate in Parliament on November 30, 1993 after a question . There the FPÖ chairman Jörg Haider spoke of a penal system that had completely slipped out of the hands of the Justice Minister. As early as November 26, 1993, Michalek had stipulated in a written decree that the Mittersteig and Göllersdorf prisons with regard to all inmates and all other prisons with regard to inmates that pose a threat to security should be granted in good time and comprehensively to the Federal Ministry of Justice about such a project before granting unattended stays outside the establishment for the first time report and submit for approval.
He also ordered that the treatment concept and control system in Mittersteig for long-term prisoners scheduled for release be reconsidered. While the focus was previously largely on the intuitive wealth of experience of individual experts, dynamic diagnoses have now been introduced according to the latest scientific ideas with the aid of extensive standardized diagnosis codes. This method combines the experience of the individual expert with that of other experts and experts through uniform prognosis criteria and therefore enables greater transparency and traceability as well as a broader foundation of the decision.
The Mittersteiger prison director Kutalek had been assigned to the Schwarzau prison until further notice . In their opinion, it was not their practice that was to blame for what happened, but rather a miserably failed therapy, assessment and prognosis. In December 1993 Mittersteig was taken over by a new director.
A working group set up by Justice Minister Nikolaus Michalek came to the conclusion in their final report on February 17, 1994 that the prison director, contrary to all rules of common sense and contrary to other practice in prisons, had ordered measures of freedom to such an extent that the The necessary control and monitoring were no longer possible. For example, the specified whereabouts of therapeutic interruptions and outcomes were not checked by Haas. In a period of six months, an alcohol test was carried out only three times after returning from the open air, and in one case it was positive; there was neither a revocation of the release nor regular alcohol controls. In addition, the working group spoke of a sloppy documentation of the personnel files of prisoners, where essential circumstances and necessary for a constitutional review had not been reflected.
As a result, Kutalek was to be permanently assigned to the psychological service of another prison, against which she put up a legal defense. Kutalek saw himself as a pawn sacrificed to the media for the purpose of exculpating the Minister of Justice. However, your complaint was dismissed as unfounded by the Administrative Court.
Web links
- The outdoorsman as a danger
- Stenographic minutes of the 139th session of the National Council, pp. 29 to 54
Individual evidence
- ↑ Madman wants to kill two more women
- ↑ The French woman's murderer overwhelmed
- ↑ Consequences of incidents in the Austrian penal institutions
- ↑ Administrative Court decision text
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Haas, Karl Otto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian murderer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1949 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1993 |