Hanau attacker’s father fully responsible

The father is charged with threatening behavior, among other things. © dpa

The psychiatric report was presented in the trial against the 77-year-old father of the Hanau attacker. The defendant portrays himself as a victim.

There are a lot of pages that fill several files in the trial against the father of the assassin on February 19, 2020. Nine cases have been combined into one main hearing, which began a month ago. The 77-year-old is charged with suspicion of insult, disregarding bans on approaching relatives of the attack victims, trespassing, incitement, false suspicion and coercion.

The start of the trial, which is led by district court director Clementine Englert, is bizarre. Officials carry the pensioner, who absolutely does not want to follow the summons, into the courtroom. There he lies on the floor for hours, and on the next few days of the hearing he stays away from the trial, leaving his public defender Johannes Hock to sit alone in the dock (we reported).

This Tuesday is the fifth day of the trial without the defendant, whose lawyer still has “no contact” with him. However, he sends faxes to the lawyer and the expert. Criminal judge Englert reads out several documents. This involves very decent job references from the 77-year-old, who is described as dutiful, friendly and collegial and was most recently employed in winter service at Hessen Mobil.

But there are also letters from the defendant that even the experienced forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Make Hildegard Müller smile – despite the seriousness of the matter. The pensioner is demanding “compensation” of around 17.4 million euros from the judicial authorities for the removal of his German Shepherd.

Plea after autumn break

And a travel allowance of around 2,000 euros for a summons to court for the route from Weststadt to the city center. Together with the strange behavior at the start of the trial, Judge Englert, defense attorney Hock and prosecutor Martin Links ask themselves the question: Is this still normal?

Hildegard Müller has not yet had a chance to speak to the defendant himself. But based on the mountain of files and the witness statements, she can certainly create a solid psychiatric report. “The defendant made his own statements hundreds of times,” she says, looking at countless letters.

The father adopted the “bizarre psychotic ideas” of his son, who killed ten people for racist motives and killed himself, and continued his conspiracy theories that “secret services” were responsible for the attack in confusing letters.

The events of the attack, the isolation, but also the public hostility were among the reasons why the 77-year-old developed a “full-blown troublemaking disorder”. “He sees himself as a victim of the system,” said the expert, who classified numerous letters as “extremely unempathetic,” “derogatory,” and “clearly racist.” “He devalues ​​people who don’t correspond to his ideas,” says Dr. Müller firmly. This also explains his behavior as a “total refuser”. And the forensic psychiatry specialist sticks to her guns: The defendant’s behavior at the start of the trial was a “staging.” The expert comes to the conclusion that there is a delusional disorder (persecution and troublemaking mania) with paranoid traits. However, according to the expert, the man knew what he was doing. In plain language: The defendant is fully responsible.

With the report, the taking of evidence has now ended. The trial before the district court will continue after the autumn break. Then the pleadings should begin.