Murder on Zollikerberg
The murder on Zollikerberg is a homicidal crime that was committed near Zurich in 1993 and had a significant impact on the handling of dangerous sexual offenders and on the legal provisions for them in Switzerland .
The victim
On the afternoon of October 30, 1993, after a day-long search on the Zollikerberg near Zurich, the body of the 20-year-old boy scout leader Pasquale Brumann, who was reported missing, was found. She was stabbed in the neck and buried naked in the forest floor.
The culprit
Erich Hauert (* 1959), who was sentenced to life imprisonment for eleven rapes and two sex murders, was arrested on November 1, 1993 and later convicted as a perpetrator after a confession and based on DNA traces. The detainee in the Regensdorf prison had committed the crime while on leave .
In 1982, Hauert raped and murdered a 26-year-old jogger in Thalwil on Lake Zurich. In 1983 he raped and murdered a 72-year-old woman in Kaiseraugst . After he was arrested in June 1983 after an attempted mail robbery, in addition to the two murders, eleven rapes could be proven. He was classified as "extremely dangerous" and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Despite this classification, enforcement was relaxed after a few years and Hauert was granted an unaccompanied exit. As a result, he gave no cause for complaint in over a hundred outcomes. On October 29, 1993, the Zurich Department of Justice approved another unaccompanied exit from Hauert for several days. The following day he killed Pasquale Brumann.
aftermath
Processes
In September 1996, Hauert was again to lifelong prison sentenced and custody pronounced indefinitely.
The mother of the murdered, Jeannette Brumann, led state liability proceedings against the canton up to the federal court . The canton denied liability, but in April 1997 recognized claims made by the victim's family for “moral reasons”. In 1998 a comprehensive comparison was finally made. The canton of Zurich paid around one million francs against the family of those killed to waive further claims under civil law.
The criminal process brought against the four judicial officers involved in granting the leave of absence ended in acquittals. The defendants received five-digit legal fees.
Impact on the prison system
After the murder, vacation and release policies were tightened and detentions increased massively. This reduced the number of relapses.
legislation
In response to the murder on Zollikerberg and another sexual offense in the same year by another repeat offender, a popular initiative entitled “Lifelong custody for non-treatable, extremely dangerous sexual and violent offenders” was launched. This was submitted on May 3, 2000 with 194,390 valid signatures. On 8 February 2004, the initiative has been a popular majority of 56.2 percent and the cantons accepted by 21.5 cantons and Art. 123a in the Swiss Federal Constitution inserted.
According to this, sex offenders and violent criminals who were classified as extremely dangerous and untreatable in the forensic reports prepared for the criminal process must be kept for the rest of their lives. Prison leave and early release are excluded for offenders in custody. New reports may only be issued if it has been proven by new, scientific findings that the perpetrator in custody can be cured. All reports must be drawn up by at least two independent and experienced professionals. If a perpetrator is released from custody on the basis of these new reports, the competent authority must assume responsibility if the released person relapses.
Criticism of the judicial authorities
The later Swiss Federal Councilor Moritz Leuenberger , who was later responsible for the cantonal penal system as the judicial director of the Zurich cantonal government , was made politically responsible for the death of Pasquale Brumann. He had been informed several times by the responsible public prosecutor Pius Schmid about the dangerousness of Hauert without taking any measures. In the expert opinion on the issue of granting leave of detention for Erich Hauert, it was warned that Hauert suffered from "psychopathic disorders of the character structure".
documentation
- Denise Chervet: Murder on Leave. SRF 1, 2007, 35 min. ( Youtube )
Web links
- Peter Holenstein : «One word would have been enough» (Weltwoche, January 14, 2004, issue 3/04) - Interview with the mother of the victim (archive)
- Alex Baur : The Brumann case - corpse in the cellar (Weltwoche, September 5, 2007, issue 36/07) - report on details and consequences of the crime as well as failures of the Justice Department (archive)
Individual evidence
- ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 1, 1993, p. 22.
- ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, November 10, 1993, p. 53.
- ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, March 26, 1999, p. 45
- ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, September 20, 1996, p. 53.
- ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, March 20, 1998, p. 53.
- ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, March 3, 1999, p. 46.
- ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 22, 2001, p. 45.
- ^ Wording of Article 123a
- ↑ WOZ-Online , January 8, 2004