Rhineland-Palatinate
Trial for prisoner release begins
One of the defendants in the hearing room of the Ludwigshafen district court. photo
© Uwe Anspach/dpa
A prisoner from Mannheim uses a doctor’s visit in Ludwigshafen to escape. Help probably comes from an accomplice and a prison employee at the time. Both testify at the start of the trial.
Five months after the release of a prisoner from the correctional facility (JVA) The trial against two suspected escape aides began in Mannheim during a doctor’s visit.
Before the Ludwigshafen district court, a 21-year-old defendant is accused of, among other things, assaulting law enforcement officers and illegal possession of weapons. He is the younger brother of the freed prisoner. The allegations against a 24-year-old prison employee at the time include freeing prisoners and obstructing punishment in office. At the start of the trial, the defense attorneys said that both defendants would fully admit the crime.
According to the court, the investigating police officers were also invited as witnesses to the trial in the second largest city in Rhineland-Palatinate. Before the negotiations began, it was said that no follow-up appointments were planned for the time being.
The prisoner used a doctor’s visit at the Ludwigshafen Clinic on December 14, 2023 to escape. An accomplice is said to have waited on site, fired a blank pistol into the air and fled with the prisoner. The fugitive and the suspected helper were later arrested in a hotel in Weinheim near Heidelberg. The prison employee at the time from Mannheim is said to have helped the prisoner plan his escape in neighboring Ludwigshafen by smuggling in a cell phone.