Saxony-Anhalt
The Halle assassin was taken hostage – a special session in the state parliament
The accused Stephan Balliet (l) is led out of the courtroom. photo
© Ronny Hartmann/AFP/POOL/dpa
In the Magdeburg state parliament, the legal committee meets for a special session to evaluate the hostage-taking of the Halle assassin. It could also take a step forward in the investigation.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the clarification of the hostage-taking of the Halle assassin is to be continued. The legal committee of the state parliament meets for a special session in Magdeburg at noon. That said a spokeswoman for the parliament of the German Press Agency.
On Monday evening, the right-wing extremist Halle assassin temporarily seized power over two employees in the Burg prison in Saxony-Anhalt. The 30-year-old was overpowered by other correctional officers inside the prison.
So far, the Stendal public prosecutor’s office has been responsible for the investigation. On Tuesday, they still had no files and could not say anything about the possible use of an object in the hostage-taking. On Wednesday, the Naumburg Public Prosecutor’s Office could take over the proceedings.
Transfer of the prisoner not excluded
State Minister of Justice Franziska Weidinger (CDU) does not rule out moving the prisoner to another state. “One option is to take the prisoner out of the prison environment,” she said. The Halle assassin is currently being held in a “particularly secured cell” in the JVA Burg.
The Halle assassin was sentenced to life imprisonment and subsequent preventive detention in December 2020. On October 9, 2019, Yom Kippur, the highest Jewish holiday, he tried to storm the synagogue in Halle and cause a massacre. When he was unable to get onto the premises, he murdered a 40-year-old passer-by in front of the synagogue and a 20-year-old in a nearby kebab shop. He injured other people while fleeing.
The Jewish community in Halle reacted with horror to the kidnapping. “That scared us a lot,” said the chairman of the community, Max Privorozki, of the German Press Agency. “I’m curious to see what comes out,” he added, looking at the investigation.
The Halle assassin is considered an uncooperative and difficult prisoner. On the Pentecost weekend of 2020, as a defendant in the Halle trial, he had already tried to escape from Halle JVA. During a yard walk, he climbed a 12-foot fence and spent five minutes unsupervised looking for a way out of prison before court officials caught him again.