Bavaria: After escapes: security check for courts ordered

Munich (dpa / lby) - After two defendants escaped from courts in Regensburg and Coburg, Bavaria's Minister of Justice has now commissioned all courts with a security check.

Bavaria: After escapes: security check for courts ordered

Munich (dpa / lby) - After two defendants escaped from courts in Regensburg and Coburg, Bavaria's Minister of Justice has now commissioned all courts with a security check. The Bavarian police will be fully involved in this security check and will also implement their own measures, a spokesman said on Tuesday in Munich.

Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU) had previously asked all courts in the Free State to submit a security concept. The pending check therefore provides that all higher regional courts immediately set up a so-called task force. By the end of March, they should check the processes and structural conditions in the courts for safety. The check also provides for the accused to have talks outside of the court sessions - for example with lawyers - in special demonstration cells. Where there are no such cells, conversations are only permitted under increased security precautions. In addition, courts, public prosecutors, correctional facilities and the police should exchange information immediately to ensure safety at the courts.

At the beginning of January, a convicted murderer fled the Regensburg district court during a meeting with his lawyer. The 40-year-old was not tied up at the time and escaped through an unsecured window of a meeting room. A 47-year-old managed to escape from the Coburg district court at the end of February. The man was being taken to the toilet without restraints when he suddenly ran, smashed open a window of a witness lounge and escaped.