Status: 02/10/2023 5:00 p.m
In the case of the alleged double murderer Ibrahim A., who is said to have killed two young people on the regional train from Kiel to Hamburg on January 25, NDR research has revealed new inconsistencies about the circumstances of his release from Hamburg pre-trial detention.
Accordingly, Ibrahim A. was released immediately after the arrest warrant was lifted, without there having been a comprehensive psychiatric examination of his dangerousness to the general public. According to research by the NDR, the psychiatric examination on January 18, 2023 was one of 16 regular appointments by a psychiatrist at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), not a prognosis report for the period after release from prison.
Psychiatrists apparently knew nothing about parole
According to NDR research, the diagnosis that there was no danger to others or oneself related solely to the prison situation on the day of the visit, not to a time after the release. According to NDR information, the treating psychiatrist did not know at the time of the examination on January 18, 2023 that Ibrahim A. was about to be released. A follow-up appointment was arranged. According to NDR information, the follow-up appointment was scheduled for January 25, 2023 – the day on which Ibrahim A. is said to have killed two people and injured five others in a regional train from Kiel to Hamburg.
“Ibrahim A. was mentally disturbed throughout”
For the first time, employees of the Billwerder correctional facility (JVA) and a psychiatrist spoke in front of the NDR camera about the circumstances of Ibrahim A.’s pre-trial detention in Hamburg. The NDR was able to speak to the head of the Institute for Forensic Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, Jochen Brack. He had prepared the only forensic report on Ibrahim A. during his detention. Brack examined Ibrahim A. in July 2022.
In an interview with the NDR, Brack says that Ibrahim A. was mentally disturbed throughout his imprisonment: “At the time of my assessment in July 2022, he was definitely suffering from an addiction – with a focus on cocaine, but probably also opioids. And secondly presented the clinical picture of a delusional disorder or psychotic reaction in the context of imprisonment.” Ibrahim A. was therefore also accommodated in a so-called security station.
According to the Hamburg judicial authorities, Ibrahim A. was visited 16 times by another psychiatrist during his time in prison. On January 18, Ibrahim A. spoke to this psychiatrist for the last time. A day later he was released from prison by order of a Hamburg court because the convict had almost completely served his sentence in pre-trial detention.
JVA staff: “We were certainly not heard enough”
In an anonymous interview, the NDR was also able to speak to a JVA official who had seen Ibrahim A. during his imprisonment in Hamburg. Accordingly, Ibrahim A. was a very strenuous inmate. At times, he employed the officials 24 hours a day.
The JVA employee complains that the JVA staff was not heard: “We were certainly not heard enough. The psychiatrist would probably have seen it very differently if he had had our findings. Then he would have seen: That’s not someone you just let it run free, but which you have to keep closed and treated accordingly professionally in order to avoid something so bad.”
Comparison with assassins from Breitscheidplatz
Recently it became known that Ibrahim A. had also compared himself to the assassin from Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, Anis Amri, while he was in custody. According to this, Ibrahim A. said to prison officials in August 2022: “There is not just one Anis Amri, there are several, I am one too.”
In 2016, Amri drove a truck into the Christmas market on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz. 13 people died in the attack.
Structural deficits in “dismissal management” criticized
The association of prison officers sees structural deficits in the so-called release management. If inmates are suspicious or express terrorist tendencies – like Ibrahim A. – according to René Müller, federal chairman of the prison staff, the officers on site should be asked more about their assessment of the inmates: “How did a prisoner move around the ward? Was there any Incidents? A judge should actually ask something like that. A psychiatrist should actually ask something like that. I don’t know whether that happened here. But for me it’s part of communication, so that you can get an overall picture of who, who should be dismissed and whether further measures may be necessary.”
Judicial authority: various offers of support until the end
Hamburg’s green justice senator Anna Gallina rejected a TV interview on the NDR research. She stated in writing that it had been ensured that Ibrahim A. was aware of the contact points for overnight stays (winter emergency aid). Ibrahim A. was also given the addresses of drug help facilities in Kiel.
The judicial authority literally explains to the NDR:
“After the arrest warrant was lifted by the Hamburg Regional Court, there was no legal basis for continuing to detain Ibrahim A. As part of his pre-trial detention, he received various offers of support up to the end. Nevertheless, we are currently examining various possibilities for improvement. This also affects the statutory notification obligations, which are mentioned here not all have been complied with.”
Further information
