one Berlin Doctor Prosecutors said Wednesday that among the deaths of 15 patients who died under palliative care, he had been charged with murder and had been accused of acting for the sake of killing. He has also been accused of trying to cover up evidence by opening fire at home.
Doctors are part of the Nursing Services Terminate Nursing Team and were initially suspected Only four patients died. This number has higher Since last summer, investigators now say they have found evidence linking him to 15 deaths between September 22, 2021 and July 24 last year.
The ages of victims range from 25 to 94 years old. Most people die in their own homes.
German media reports identified the suspect as Johannes M. , but prosecutors have not released the name under Germany’s privacy rules.
The 40-year-old doctor allegedly “had anesthetized and muscle relaxant on the patient without knowing or agreeing,” the Berlin prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “The latter paralyzes the respiratory muscles, causing respiratory tract stagnation and death within minutes.”
Prosecutors and police have previously said that the defendant is said to have no motive except murder, and that the suspect’s behavior meets the legal definition of “desire for murder.”
He allegedly administered anesthesia and muscle relaxants to the patient without his knowledge or consent. Drug cocktails allegedly paralyzed the respiratory muscles. The respiratory arrest and death followed within minutes, prosecutors said.
Doctors have been in custody since August 6. Prosecutors said Wednesday that he has not responded to the case against him.
The charges have been brought to the Berlin State Court, which now has to decide whether to submit the case to trial and, if so, when to proceed.
The maximum sentence for murder will be sentenced to prison. Prosecutors said they aimed to ask the court to determine that the suspect, Bear, is particularly serious, which means he will not be eligible for release in 15 years, as it is usually in Germany. They also want him to be forbidden for life.
The case recalls the infamous German nurse Niels HoegelHe was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 for the murder of 85 patients.
Hoegel, believed to be from Germany The most prolific serial killerbetween 2000 and 2005, the murder of a patient in the hospital was before he was eventually captured into the bill.
In a recent case in Germany, a 27-year-old male nurse was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2023 for intentionally managing unprovisioned drugs. The nurse (determined as Mario G.) was also convicted of six counts of attempted murder.
Newborn nurse in England Lucy Letby Life imprisonment is being sentenced to Murdering seven babies and attempted to murder six other people. However, in February, the expert team Objection to medical evidence Used to convict Wright. Last month, Letby’s lawyers and former hospital executive lawyers worked there, asking the judge to stop the investigation into the deaths as a panel of experts.
France-Pars-Pars contributed to this report.
