Not Only Russia
Russia is often accused of having a rotten legal system and of acting irresponsibly when legal issues are concerned. I’d like to bring to your attention that not only Russia has a flawed legal sytem, the German one isn’t any better.
The irresponsible behaviour of a German judge has led to a double murder just recently.
A 39 year old Dutch national of Turkish descent shot his German wife and his 18 year old daughter in public last Friday in the town of Mönchengladbach / Germany shortly after a hearing in court.
The hearing in court was about the divorce of the couple and took place at the court house of Krefeld / Germany, just a couple of miles away from Mönchengladbach where the two victimes lived. The killed woman had previously lived together with her husband in The Netherlands and had returned to Germany after the couple had broken up.
This double killing could have been prevented as there had been an open arrest warrant, issued against the husband, the judge had been aware of.
The woman’s lawyer had notified the judge, orally as well as in written form on the day of the hearing, that an arrest warrant had been issued as the husband is the primary suspect in a rape case and was sought by the German police.
The judge did pick up the phone on his desk and did call the public prosecutor of the city of Krefeld, who has his office in the very same court house, but for some reason the proscecutor didn’t act and neither sent the police nor took any other appropriate action to have the suspect arrested.
As the public prosecutor didn’t act, the judge remained passively and didn’t take any action himself. The husband was permitted to leave the court room and walked away free after the hearing. Only a couple of hours later he shot his wife and daughter.
The law enforcement communities of the cities of Krefeld and Mönchengladbach, as well as the prosecutor general of Düsseldorf (capital of Germany’s federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen were both cities are located) expressed their surprise and astonishment.
Each German court house has an armed constabulary to guard convicted criminals awaiting a hearing or to protect witnesses in court. There are also arrest cells in every German court house.
The judge could have easily picked up the phone to call the constabulary or could have dialed 110 (the German equivalent to the US-American 911) to be connected with the nearest police station and to order armed policemen to arrest the suspect. The judge failed to do both.
Aggravatingly is that fact that the woman had sought for protection by the authorities as her husband had threatend her life repeatedly.
Justice speaker Joachim Banke confirmed that a case had been filed against the husband on the basis of domestic violence according the law regarding the protection against domestic violence.
After all, the public prosecutor’s office of Krefeld has been ordered by the state’s Ministry of Justice to investigate and to decide whether legal charges are to be filed against the judge and the local public prosecutor who failed to take appropriate action on the basis of disciplinary offences and unintentional manslaughter.
But this won’t bring back the two women. Sometimes Germany is as f***** up as Russia.
There is a full coverage of the story at N24 News (in German).
[...] the fact that Russia’s legal system is often criticised for “bizarre” judgments . “Not Only Russia” intended to point out that Germany’s legal system is as “bizarre” as [...]