Police report
After a day-long escape, the police arrested the 32-year-old suspect in the Basel murder on Friday afternoon. This was announced by the Basel public prosecutor’s office. He is believed to have killed an elderly woman.
The arrest took place at around 2.30 p.m. following a tip-off from a third party on Unterer Rheinwegit continued. The public prosecutor’s office had previously issued a public search warrant.
The arrested Swiss man is “strongly” suspected of having killed a 75-year-old woman in an apartment building on Nasenweg in Basel’s Breite district on Thursday. According to a statement, the criminal police are now investigating the exact course of events.
The suspect is a repeat offender who was in the University Psychiatric Clinics of Basel. The man, who suffers from schizophrenia, had already stabbed two women and seriously injured an elderly man with a knife in the same district on November 3, 2014. He was arrested at the scene of the crime. A spokesman for the Basel public prosecutor’s office confirmed this to the Keystone-SDA news agency. The Basler Zeitung had previously reported on the matter.
Psychiatric clinic remains silent
In September 2015, the Basel Criminal Court ordered inpatient psychiatric treatment for the severely mentally ill man. It found that the perpetrator, who was not criminally responsible, had fulfilled the elements of multiple murder and attempted murder. The psychiatric report at the time stated that without treatment, the risk of recidivism for serious crimes was high.
As the “bz Basel” wrote, the inpatient measure was extended for a further five years in 2020. However, the man is said to have been granted several relaxations since 2017, such as accompanied day-outs.
According to the Basler Zeitung, the suspect was allowed to go on parole unaccompanied on Thursday. The University Psychiatric Clinics of Basel did not want to comment on the matter when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency. (rbu/leo/sda)
