pastures. A Syrian mother’s delusional thoughts were so great in 2021 that she threw her children out of the window. She saw it as the only escape route. The District Court of Weiden made a new, surprising judgment on Thursday.
The third criminal chamber, chaired by District Court President Josef Weidensteiner (centre, with judges Magdalena Stahl, left, and Dr. Franziska Attenberger) passed the verdict. Photo: Christine Ascherl
The third criminal chamber chaired by the district court president Josef Weidensteiner announced the decision at 1 p.m. Further placement in a psychiatric hospital was refused. The April 2021 placement order was lifted with immediate effect. In the same minute, Weidensteiner had the suspect’s ankle cuffs removed. She is a free woman with immediate effect.
The case is tragic: in April 2021, the mother (32) from Syria threw her two daughters out of the window of the women’s shelter in Weiden. After separating from her husband, she felt persecuted. She acted under the impression of untreated schizophrenia. The district court in Weiden had housed the woman in a closed clinic in December 2021. The Federal Court of Justice dismissed the verdict. Hence the new backup procedure.
Schizophrenia: Symptoms defeated with medication
District Court President Weidensteiner justified the new judgment on Thursday, which means the release from the psychiatric ward. The woman suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. She was acting delusional. “The crucial question is: Is there still a general risk?” The date of the current hearing applies: And now the woman – unlike the first trial a year and a half ago – is symptom-free.
The risk of repetition is also important. According to the court, this does not exist, also as far as the children are concerned: the two daughters and two sons (now 2, 3, 10 and 12 years old) are growing up in the care of the youth welfare office. There is only controlled handling, so far exclusively via video.
The court clarified that the accused can stay in forensics for another 48 hours, i.e. “do not be on the street at 4 p.m.”. “You are a free person with immediate effect.” However, Weidensteiner advised the woman to stay in the clinic for two more days until she had a place to stay. “It is now the task of the supervisor to ensure proper accommodation within this time.”
Problem: No space in suitable facilities
That could become a problem: the woman has no social environment in Germany. There are no relatives in Germany apart from her husband, who was in prison for assault offenses until a few days ago. It is known that her mother lives in a refugee camp in Turkey. The rest of the family is somewhere in Idlib.
The Arabic-speaking accused does not know anyone here. The expert dr. Bruno Rieder had considered a release on probation to be justifiable. Big “but”: A care system is needed, for example in a supervised residential group. It is essential to ensure that the woman continues to take her medication.
Finding a place in a suitable facility has proved difficult in recent weeks. Attorney Rouven Colbatz went beyond the usual work of a defense attorney in the search for his own information. Also District Court Physician dr. Bruno Rieder rattled off possible addresses by telephone. Conclusion: There is no place, there are waiting lists everywhere.
defender Colbatz was positively surprised by the decision, which corresponded to his request from the plea: “That’s more than I expected.” The judgment corresponds to the legal situation: Due to the lack of danger to the general public, there is no basis for accommodation.
Life story: On the run for years
The mother of four had told her life story to the psychiatric expert: According to this, the woman comes from Damascus and grew up with three siblings. Due to the civil war, the family first moved to Idlib. After completing the ninth grade, the accused was engaged at the age of 17 to a future husband she had not previously known. But they got along well and lived in their parents’ house. The mother-in-law called her “mother”, that’s how good the relationship was.
In 2015, her husband went to Germany and committed serious bodily harm in the Allgäu asylum seekers’ home when he attacked a roommate with a knife. His wife tried to follow in 2017 with two children and was initially stranded in a camp in Turkey for a year and a half before she was able to travel to Bavaria in 2019. Another two children were born.
However, the marriage did not go smoothly. The accused called the police four times because her husband had attacked her in the apartment. Once the son who tried to hold the door was injured. Finally, the mother and the children were taken to the women’s shelter in Weiden. The rest is well known: Due to her illness, the Syrian distrusted everything and everyone in Weiden, including the employees of the women’s shelter, and saw the last escape route through the window.
