Magnus Gaefgen

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Magnus Gäfgen (born April 11, 1975 in Frankfurt am Main ) was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003 for the kidnapping and murder of the eleven-year-old banker's son Jakob von Metzler, stating the severity of the guilt .

Life

Gäfgen grew up in the Sachsenhausen district of Frankfurt as the son of a civil engineer and an educator in a workers' settlement. His parents raised him strictly Catholic and he was involved in his home community as a youth worker . A boy he was taking care of at the time and his mother later stated that Gäfgen could not accept rejection and the end of his friendship with this boy and that he behaved conspicuously. Years later, during the interrogation about the disappearance of Jakob von Metzler, Gäfgen accused the boy and his brother as accomplices.

He passed the Abitur at the Carl-Schurz-Schule in 1995 . He then did community service in geriatric care. In 1996 he started at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main to study law .

During this time he joined young people from wealthy parental homes. He pretended to be wealthy himself, using up a pension fund his father had saved for him. He began a relationship with a then 15-year-old girl and financed her a vacation in Florida , after which his financial reserves were exhausted. Through his girlfriend, he also got to know the sister of his later kidnap victim. At least once he drove the children of the von Metzler family home in his car . He later used this fleeting contact to gain the trust of eleven-year-old Jakob von Metzler.

The kidnapping and murder of Jakob von Metzler

In order to be able to finance his lavish lifestyle, Gäfgen decided to kidnap Jakob von Metzler and extort a ransom from his parents. On September 27, 2002, Gäfgen lured Jakob von Metzler into his apartment under a pretext and killed him there. Then he sent the boy's parents a ransom note demanding a million euros ransom. On the same day he hid the body by a pond near the East Hessian community of Birstein .

Place where the money was handed over in the case of the Metzler kidnapping: Oberschweinstiege tram stop in the Frankfurt city forest

Gäfgen took the ransom that had been provided at a tram stop. He was identified by the police on the basis of his license plate number and then shadowed. Having not been for several hours to be - by the police as alive suspected - minded victim, but instead a new car purchases and a vacation booked with his girlfriend, he was finally on 30 September 2002 in the parking garage of the Frankfurt airport arrested .

After Gäfgen had disguised the whereabouts and condition of his victim during the police interrogation and accused two uninvolved acquaintances as accomplices , the then Police Vice President Wolfgang Daschner ordered the threat of violence to force what he believed to be a life-saving statement about the eleven-year-old's whereabouts. Gäfgen then provided correct information so that the police could find the body of the kidnap victim. Daschner later had to answer criminally for this threat of violence in the Daschner trial .

Trial and Detention

On 28 July 2003 which sentenced Landgericht Frankfurt am Main Gäfgen for murder in coincidence with extortion kidnapping with death and because of false accusation in coincidence with false imprisonment in two cases to life imprisonment and made it the special weight of the debt established that a criminal residual exposure to This is contrary to probation according to Section 57a ​​of the Criminal Code after a minimum period of 15 years. The conviction was based in particular on his confession at the main hearing. His appeal before the Federal Court of Justice was rejected on May 21, 2004. His constitutional complaint was also unsuccessful: Gäfgen did not provide sufficient reasons why the procedural violation during the interrogation after the arrest necessarily had to result in an obstacle to the criminal proceedings.

In 2005 Gäfgen published the book Alone with God - The Way Back . In September 2006 he filed for consumer bankruptcy. He has been debt free since December 8, 2012.

Gäfgen has been serving his prison sentence in Kassel since November 2012. In prison, Gäfgen passed the first state examination in law. As a convicted felon, he is not admitted to the second state examination in law.

In August 2013 Gäfgen was in the social therapeutic institution of Penitentiary Kassel II laid.

With effect from September 30, 2014 Gäfgen changed its name; this should serve the rehabilitation .

In 2017 he applied to the Kassel regional court to suspend the sentence.

In June 2017, a psychiatric-psychological prognostic report was prepared by the neurologist Georg Stolpmann as an expert for the Kassel regional court . He came to the conclusion that Gäfgen continued to pose a threat to society and therefore recommended that the request for suspension of his sentence not be granted.

The head of the socio-therapeutic institution of the Kassel II prison agreed with this view.

The public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt am Main also recommended in a statement from June 2017 for the Kassel regional court not to release Gäfgen yet. In January 2018, Gäfgen filed an application for bias against the expert.

More legal proceedings

The procedure before the ECHR

In June 2005, Gäfgen filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to have the case reopened. He invoked a violation of Art. 3 ECHR (prohibition of torture and ill-treatment) and Art. 6 ECHR (fair trial). In Gäfgen's opinion, the threat of torture was not sufficiently taken into account in the later criminal proceedings against him. The proceedings should have been discontinued because of the threat of torture. He was a victim of torture. In addition, evidence was obtained through his confession, which could only have been seized and used by the authorities as a result of these statements (see Fruits of the forbidden tree ). This violates his right to a fair trial. On June 30, 2008, the ECHR dismissed Gäfgen's complaint as unfounded. The court ruled with 6 to 1 votes that while Gäfgen had been the victim of a violation of Article 3 ECHR (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment), he had lost the victim status when the proceedings before the ECHR were initiated because the German courts - above all the Federal Constitutional Court - recognized the method of interrogation as a violation of Art. 3 ECHR, the two police officers were convicted and the confession obtained through prohibited interrogation methods was not used against guests in the criminal proceedings. A violation of Art. 6 ECHR (right to a fair trial) was not found; because the conviction was based on a later confession by the murderer. He had submitted this to the court after he had been instructed that all previous statements should not be used against him. In addition, Gäfgen had stated in his new confession that he made it voluntarily, out of remorse and to take responsibility for his crime.

Gäfgen's lawyer appealed against this decision to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, which had 17 judges and made the decision on June 1, 2010. She stressed that the threats against Gäfgen were not torture, but inhuman treatment, which is also prohibited by Art. 3 ECHR. In contrast to the lower court, however, the Grand Chamber was of the opinion that Gäfgen could continue to assert that he was the victim of a violation of Art. 3 ECHR, because the police officers involved had only been sentenced to a small fine. Furthermore, the official liability proceedings initiated by Gäfgen are still not completed after more than three years. In this respect, Gäfgen achieved partial success.

However, Gäfgen did not achieve his main goal. Because the Grand Chamber shared the assessment of the lower court that Gäfgen's right to a fair trial had not been violated. There could be no new criminal proceedings or the resumption of his criminal proceedings.

The Darmstadt Regional Court and the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court refused to reopen the trial against Magnus Gäfgen.

Official liability litigation against the state of Hesse

In December 2005 Gäfgen sued the state of Hesse for compensation of at least 10,000 euros. Legal aid was initially denied by the Regional Court and the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court due to the lack of a sufficient chance of success until the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on February 19, 2008 that it had to be approved because it was about difficult legal issues.

On August 4, 2011, the regional court in Gäfgen awarded € 3,000 in compensation , but no compensation for pain and suffering . Officials of the country would have "blatantly culpably violated the human dignity of the plaintiff". After the defendant State of Hesse appealed, the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court proposed a settlement. According to this, instead of paying compensation to Gäfgen, the country should pay 2000 euros to a non-profit organization. Gäfgen agreed to the proposal. The state of Hesse did not expressly reject the proposal, but let the deadline for the declaration pass.

With a judgment of October 10, 2012, the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main rejected the appeal of the defendant State of Hesse. The appeal was denied. Although the judgment expressly ordered the payment to Gäfgen, the insolvency administrator Gäfgen also claimed compensation for the insolvency estate in order to carry out a supplementary distribution to the creditors of Gäfgen. The State of Hesse then deposited the compensation at the depository office of the Frankfurt / Main District Court. In a ruling that became known in early September 2013, the Frankfurt District Court rejected the insolvency administrator's claim and awarded the compensation to Gäfgen.

"Gäfgen Foundation"

A planned Gäfgen Foundation "to support children who are victims of crime were," was approved by the competent authority of the ADD Trier rejected in August 2006 as the Foundation establishment against "the decency Think of all right-thinking people" and therefore against public decency contrary .

At the beginning of 2007, after a preliminary check of newly submitted documents, according to which Gäfgen would not be the namesake, the planned statutes make no reference to him and he should not represent the foundation externally, the authority announced that there were no longer any legal objections against this foundation.

The responsible interior minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Karl Peter Bruch , had made it clear that the foundation would not be approved “if the person Gäfgen should play any role in it”. In the 2/2007 issue, Der Spiegel quotes Bruch with the words: “A commitment by Gäfgen is clearly against morality, and we will never accept such a foundation. If necessary, they have to take us to the administrative court. ”According to press reports, the project has not been pursued since June 2008.

Film adaptations, podcasts and books

The Gäfgen case served as a template for two television films. The ARD broadcast on 29 March 2006, the crime drama A question of conscience of the director Thomas Bohn . Almost a month later, ZDF followed on April 22, 2006 with the fourth episode of the crime series Kommissarin Lucas . Gäfgen defended himself unsuccessfully at the Koblenz Regional Court against the broadcast of the last-named film, which was more oriented towards the crime . The case was also the subject of documentaries on several occasions. On July 26, 2007, ZDF broadcast the Jakob von Metzler murder case. A crime and its consequences and on September 24, 2012 the “semi-documentary fictional film” The Jakob von Metzler case with Johannes Allmayer in the role of Magnus Gäfgen. In the ARD, the case was discussed on December 1, 2008 in an episode of the series The great criminal cases . The Tatort episode vacancy , broadcast for the first time in 2005, also shows parallels to the case.

In August 2010, a book project by Ortwin Ennigkeit, one of the police officers involved in the interrogation of Gäfgen, was stopped. The Frankfurt police chief Achim Thiel justified this with a possible betrayal of official secrets . The issuing Heyne Verlag waited for the outcome of the official liability proceedings. The book was published on September 12, 2011. In 2019, the murder case in the episode The Child Murderer of the podcast Convicted! addressed by the Hessischer Rundfunk , which was also published as a video on YouTube .

Fonts

  • Magnus Gäfgen: Alone with God - The way back. Atlantic-Millenium-Press, Bendorf 2005, ISBN 3-00-017114-2 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b LG Frankfurt am Main, judgment of July 28, 2003 - 5/22 Ks 2/03 3490 Js 230118/02
  2. ^ Handelsblatt on April 11, 2003: New confession in the Metzler murder trial. Retrieved September 28, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Peter Brock: Silence is not appropriate . Berliner Zeitung , April 10, 2003
  4. ↑ Interviews in the documentary "Jakob von Metzler - Death of a Banker's Son", Season 7, Episode 33 of the series " The Great Criminal Cases "
  5. ↑ Press release LG Frankfurt: Written reasons for the verdict in the criminal case against Wolfgang Daschner, February 15, 2005 ( PDF file 196kB)
  6. ↑ Regional Court Frankfurt archive.org PDF Criminal case against Wolfgang Daschner
  7. ↑ Press release BGH: Judgment against Magnus Gäfgen in the case of kidnapping Jakob von Metzler final cf. BGH 2 StR 35/04 - decision of May 21, 2004
  8. ↑ Press release BVerfG: Constitutional complaint by Magnus Gaefgen unsuccessful , BVerfG 2 BvR 1249/04 - decision of December 14, 2004
  9. ↑ Magnus Gäfgen will cancel the debts. In: Rheinische Post. December 17, 2012, accessed December 17, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Jost Müller-Neuhoff: Magnus Gäfgen: A bit of torture , Der Tagesspiegel , accessed on September 29, 2019
  11. ↑ a b Göran Schattauer: Child murderer Magnus Gäfgen continues to be dangerous. Expert opinion drawn up. In: Focus Online. January 26, 2018, accessed September 9, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Child murderer Magnus Gäfgen: His luxury life in jail! Retrieved December 24, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Magnus Gäfgen: Child murderer changes his name , Frankfurter Neue Presse of January 13, 2015.
  14. ↑ Jakob von Metzler's murderer wants to be released on parole ( memento from August 9, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). In: faz.net . August 9, 2017.
  15. ↑ No early release of child murderer Magnus Gäfgen. In: hna.de. January 26, 2018, accessed September 21, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Process: Child murderer files bias application against psychiatric expert
  17. ↑ ECHR No. 22978/05 (Fifth Section) - Admissibility decision of April 10, 2007 (Gäfgen v. Germany) , HRRS 2007 No. 566, hrr-strafrecht.de ( HUDOC )
  18. ↑ ECHR No. 22978/05 - Judgment of the 5th Chamber of June 30, 2008 (Gäfgen vs. Germany) , HRRS 2008 No. 627, hrr-strafrecht.de ( HUDOC )
  19. ↑ Webcast of the hearing on March 18, 2009
  20. ^ Press release of the Court of Justice of June 1, 2010
  21. ↑ The Gäfgen case is not reopened
  22. ↑ Defeat for child murderer Gäfgen ( Memento from October 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ^ LG Frankfurt / Main, 2-04 O 521/05, decision of August 28, 2006, press release (PDF file; 91 kB)
  24. ↑ BVerfG 1 BvR 1807/07, decision of February 19, 2008
  25. ^ LG Frankfurt am Main, judgment of August 4, 2011 Az. 2-04 O 521/05
  26. ↑ The dispute over compensation for Gäfgen goes into the next round (Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 29, 2012)
  27. ↑ New procedure for compensation for guests (focus.de on August 29, 2012)
  28. ↑ Higher Regional Court Frankfurt am Main confirms monetary compensation for Magnus G. for prohibited methods of interrogation ( memento of December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  29. ↑ Insolvency administrator wants Gäfgens money fr-online.de January 10, 2013
  30. ^ Metzler murder case: Child murderer Gäfgen receives money. fr-online from September 3, 2013
  31. ↑ Press release of the White Ring: Incomprehensible from the victim's point of view / White Ring criticizes cynical hacking around the Gäfgen Foundation, January 2, 2007
  32. ↑ WELT online: Child murderer is allowed to set up a foundation, January 3, 2007
  33. ↑ ADD Trier press release: "Magnus-Gäfgen-Stiftung" not recognized by ADD, January 2nd, 2007 ( Memento of March 13th, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  34. ^ Spiegel.de: Authority bans Gäfgen Foundation, August 22, 2006
  35. ↑ spiegel.de: Child murderer Gäfgen is allowed to set up a foundation, January 1, 2007
  36. ↑ No foundation with guests . In: Der Spiegel . No. 2 , 2007, p. 15 ( Online - Jan. 8, 2007 ).
  37. ↑ taz.de v. June 30, 2008: A defensive murderer
  38. ^ LG Koblenz, judgment of June 2, 2006 - Az .: 13 O 4/06, NJW 2007, 695, online
  39. ↑ Description of the film on ZDF
  40. ↑ The twisted question of guilt. Handelsblatt Online on September 24, 2012
  41. ↑ The dilemma in the Metzler Frankfurter Rundschau murder case online on September 24, 2012
  42. ↑ Description of the film at ARD.de
  43. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau on July 28, 2011: False statements in court? Retrieved February 14, 2013 .
  44. ↑ Book publication by Heyne Verlag. Retrieved September 20, 2016 .
  45. ↑ Judgment podcast in the video (10) Sentenced! The child murderer , hessenschau.de , September 26, 2019
  46. ↑ The child murderer | Sentenced! - The court podcast , YouTube channel hrfernsehen , September 26, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Gaefgen, Magnus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German murderer
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main