Dresden (dpa/sn) - Almost four years after the incidents, five suspended employees of the Dresden correctional facility have to answer for dangerous bodily harm in office. According to the indictment read out on Friday at the start of the trial at the Dresden District Court, the 31 to 53-year-olds are said to have repeatedly beaten and otherwise injured foreign prisoners in 2018. They also include a 43-year-old who published the arrest warrant for an Iraqi prisoner on remand in 2018 and leaked it to right-wing extremist circles.
During the investigation, the police came across chat groups in which officials made fun of foreign prisoners and boasted about physical assaults. From this, the investigators reconstructed several acts that the accused are now accused of.
According to the public prosecutor, in July 2018 three of them abused a Tunisian who was being held in a specially secured cell to protect him from harm to others and himself. According to the indictment, the 43-year-old blinded the victim through the food flap with a flashlight. When the 28-year-old hid in the cell, he and two co-defendants (31, 40) brought the prisoner to the ground, tied his hands, sometimes kicked and hit him.
The 40-year-old and a 53-year-old are said to have hit another prisoner together with a colleague a week earlier. However, the proceedings against this older, initially co-defendant were discontinued on payment of a monetary condition.
Another accused allegedly pushed a prisoner who allegedly flooded his cell in August 2018. The man slipped and hit the door, injuring his head. The accused only admitted in court that he photographed a prisoner in February 2018 and posted the picture in a WhatsApp group.
The accused, who are said to have been involved in the attack on the Tunisian, stated that they were not guilty of anything. The 28-year-old was isolated because of attacks on fellow prisoners and servants. The light in the room was switched off and the food flap was open - that was against the rule, so he shined his flashlight in, the 43-year-old justified his actions. The prisoner was tied up to calm him down.
