Miscarriage of justice around Monika de Montgazon

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The miscarriage of justice surrounding Monika de Montgazon describes the case of the German medical assistant Monika de Montgazon (* 1955 in Berlin , † December 2016 or January 2017 there ), who was wrongly convicted of murder and later acquitted.

Life

Monika de Montagzon was the daughter of a toolmaker and a saleswoman and grew up in Berlin-Neukölln . She became a doctor's assistant and had a son at the age of 23, whose father died three years later.

Case, investigation and litigation

The house in Berlin-Buckow that Monika de Montgazon lived in with her father burned down on the night of September 18, 2003. The 76-year-old father, who had cancer, died in his bed while his daughter was able to save herself. On the basis of two fire reports by the State Criminal Police Office, the public prosecutor's office accused Monika de Montgazon of having started the fire with the help of denatured alcohol and murdered her father in order to obtain the sum insured for the burned down house. A motive for the allegation of murder was not given; the father was so seriously ill that a few weeks later, according to the doctors, he would have died of natural causes anyway. An external expert from the defense who vehemently contradicted the prosecution's report was not heard in court either. The Berlin district court followed the indictment and sentenced Monika de Montgazon to life imprisonment in 2005, whereby the particular gravity of the guilt was determined.

The Federal Court quashed the revision of the accused towards 2006 the judgment on. In the new main hearing, the experts commissioned by de Montgazon and an expert from the Federal Criminal Police Office showed that the LKA reports contained serious errors. It was not alcohol that caused the fire, but probably a cigarette from the father. The burning spruce wood in his bed then released the same gas residues as alcohol. In 2008 she was then acquitted of proven innocence.

consequences

Monika de Montgazon was initially unemployed after her release from prison and had to live on unemployment benefit II . Despite her 28 years of professional experience, she could no longer find a job as a medical assistant. Reintegration assistance, which is provided for lawfully convicted offenders after their prison term, has not been approved. She received compensation of 9,779 euros, the equivalent of 11 euros per day in custody. The discussion about her case led to the fact that the Bundestag changed the law enforcement compensation law in 2009 and raised the daily rate for compensation to 25 euros, from which de Montgazon could no longer benefit.

The Berlin Court of Appeal decided in February 2012 that de Montgazon had to repay around 5,000 euros in appraisal costs to the state treasury and that it would not be reimbursed another 27,000 euros in appraisal costs. During the second procedure, she commissioned five fire analysts, whose reports had cost a total of 113,638 euros. The court had reduced the hourly rates of the experts from 100 to 125 euros to 84 euros, since "the need for an hourly rate beyond this [...] had not been plausibly demonstrated" and reduced the flat-rate travel expenses and the fee for the preparation time of an expert, because “costs that an economically thinking person would not have incurred” cannot be reimbursed by the state treasury. De Montgazon's lawyer, however, brought an action (2012) before the Federal Constitutional Court .

Last years

After her acquittal, de Montgazon also received the fire insurance money. Together with a friend from the bar scene, she opened the Zeitlos discotheque in the south of Berlin . With the help of her brother-in-law, she enforced additional compensation for her imprisonment of 53,000 euros, as well as the payment of her last salary of 1,100 euros a month through the judicial coffers until she retired after she had lost her job as a result of the misjudgment, and the back payment for those who had passed Years. After the discotheque was unsuccessful and a loan was given to a former inmate, she ran into economic difficulties again and finally had to file for personal bankruptcy. After calling her son for the last time on December 27, 2016, Monika de Montgazon was found dead in her apartment on January 2. According to the autopsy result , third-party negligence could be ruled out.

Uta Eisenhardt commented at the time : “It was not a violent death. Nobody had killed, strangled or poisoned her. She was only catapulted out of her social structure due to systematic sloppiness and arrogance. "

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara Keller: Monika de Montgazon is dead: after a serious miscarriage of justice - of fairness and decency . In: berlinkriminell.de . ( berlinkriminell.de ).
  2. ↑ Uta Eisenhardt: At the age of 61: Justice victim Monika de Montgazon died . In: Berliner Zeitung . ( berliner-zeitung.de [accessed on March 2, 2017]).
  3. ↑ a b David Ensikat: Obituary for Monika de Montgazon: When it says that the law has been restored , Tagesspiegel, July 6, 2017.
  4. ↑ Judgment of the Berlin Regional Court , January 26, 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
  5. ^ Annulment of the judgment , Federal Court of Justice, January 11, 2006. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
  6. ↑ Silke Bigalke: How the German justice system lets its victims down. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. September 1, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  7. ↑ Jens Anker: Innocent in custody: Make 25,000 euros, please. In: The compact world. February 7, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  8. ^ A b c Sebastian Höhn: Dispute over legal costs - expensive error of the judiciary. In: Berliner Zeitung. April 12, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  9. ↑ Jens Anker: Those convicted innocently have to pay for their freedom. In: Berliner Morgenpost. April 12, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  10. ↑ Sebastian Höhn: Error without end. ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Frankfurter Rundschau. October 29, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  11. ↑ Uta Eisenhardt: Misjudgment: Dangerous reports . In: Die Zeit , No. 26, June 18, 2019.