After the knife attack on a regional train, a debate erupts about ex-convicts falling into a "release hole". A resocialization expert accuses the Hamburg justice senator of not knowing the legal situation. Because there are binding integration plans for released offenders.
Days after the deadly knife attack on a regional train in Brokstedt, Schleswig-Holstein, the authorities are increasingly focusing on how the authorities are dealing with the alleged perpetrator. The resocialization expert Bernd Maelicke accuses the Hamburg Senator for Justice Anna Gallina in the "Hamburger Abendblatt" of having ignored the Hamburg law on resocialization and victim protection (ResOG) passed in 2019. The law aims to prevent ex-convicts from "falling down a release hole" when the prison gates open. Gallina obviously doesn't know it, in any case it couldn't have been applied, said the lawyer Maelicke, who initiated several state rehabilitation laws, the newspaper. "As a senator, she bears responsibility."
In the act on the regional train from Kiel to Hamburg, two people died and five were seriously injured. An arrest warrant was issued against Ibrahim A. for two counts of murder and four counts of attempted manslaughter. Only a few days before the bloody crime on the regional train, A., a 33-year-old stateless Palestinian, was released from custody in Hamburg. For the Hamburg CDU parliamentary group leader Dennis Thering, the case shows again that the Hamburg judiciary is completely overwhelmed and Gallina is not up to the task. "Once again, she dives in instead of giving answers and solving problems," criticizes Thering in the Hamburger Abendblatt. He expects the first answers on Thursday in the Judiciary Committee of the Hamburg Parliament. The senator had announced that she would report there on the Hamburg aspects of the crime.
In Düsseldorf, the legal committee of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament is also to meet for a special session next week. A. had been noticed in the past with violent crimes in both NRW and Hamburg. The chairman of the working group on migration law in the German Lawyers' Association (DAV), Thomas Oberhäuser, denied the question of whether the judiciary and administration could have prevented the crime on Deutschlandfunk on Saturday. He referred to legal considerations and requirements in pre-trial detention cases. At best, the judiciary and administration could have prevented the crime by continuing to hold him in custody, according to Oberhäuser. "But the judiciary decided that that would have been disproportionate to the crime he was accused of."
According to Maelicke, paragraph 9 of the Hamburg ResOG stipulates a binding integration plan with regulations on the social situation, place of residence, addictive behavior and securing a living. "Even the preventive measures provided for in the law are not recognizable in this individual case," he criticized in the "Hamburger Abendblatt".
The motive of the suspect is still unclear. According to his lawyer, Ibrahim A. made no statements on the matter at the judge's appointment. Once the results of the investigation are available, he will speak to his client, said lawyer Björn Seelbach.
According to a report by the "Lübecker Nachrichten" (LN), the passenger association "Pro Bahn" and the union of German train drivers GDL are now in favor of more safety measures in the trains. "We demand a comprehensive expansion of video surveillance in all wagons," says Karl-Peter Naumann from "Pro Bahn". This may not always prevent crime on the trains. "But in any case, it helps to catch the perpetrators. And that is particularly important for the victims."
According to the "LN" report, the GDL will meet shortly with the state-owned transport company Nah.SH to discuss the consequences of the attack. "We have been calling for more security measures on the trains for a long time," said GDL district chairman Hartmut Petersen, according to the newspaper.
According to Dennis Fiedel from Nah.SH, all newer regional trains that have been in use since 2015 have video technology, as the "Kieler Nachrichten" writes on Saturday. But the RE 70 in which the knife attack took place was a replacement train without video recording.
