BERLIN (AP) — A German doctor went on trial in Berlin Monday, accused of murdering 15 of his patients who were under palliative care.
The prosecutor’s office brought charges against the 40-year-old doctor “for 15 counts of murder with premeditated malice and other base motives” before a Berlin state court. The prosecutor’s office is seeking not only a conviction and a finding of “particularly serious” guilt, but also a lifetime ban on practicing medicine and subsequent preventive detention.
Murder charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. If a court establishes that the defendant bears particularly severe guilt, that means he wouldn’t be eligible for release after 15 years as is usually the case in Germany.
Parallel to the trial, the prosecutor’s office is investigating dozens of other suspected cases in separate proceedings.
The man, who has only been identified as Johannes M. in line with Germany privacy rules, is also accused of trying to cover up evidence of the murders by starting fires in the victims' homes. He has been in custody since Aug. 6.
The doctor was part of a nursing service’s end-of-life care team in the German capital and was initially suspected in the deaths of just four patients. That number has crept higher since last summer, and prosecutors are now accusing him of the deaths of 15 people between Sept. 22, 2021, and July 24 last year.
The victims’ ages ranged from 25 to 94. Most died in their own homes.
The doctor allegedly administered an anesthetic and a muscle relaxer to the patients without their knowledge or consent. The drug cocktail then allegedly paralyzed the respiratory muscles. Respiratory arrest and death followed within minutes, prosecutors said.
The doctor did not agree to an interview with a psychiatric expert ahead of the trial, German news agency dpa reported. The expert will therefore observe the defendant’s behavior in court and hear statements from witnesses in order to give an assessment of the man’s personality and culpability.
So far, it is unclear what the palliative care physician’s motive might have been, dpa reported. The victims named in the indictment were all seriously ill, but their deaths were not imminent.
The defendant will not make a statement to the court for the time being, his defense lawyer Christoph Stoll said, according to dpa.
The court has initially scheduled 35 trial dates for the proceedings until January 28, 2026. According to the court, 13 relatives of the deceased are represented as co-plaintiffs. There are several witnesses for each case, and around 150 people in total could be heard in court, dpa reported.
Among the cases now being heard in court is that of a 56-year-old woman who died in September.
On Sept. 5, the doctor allegedly administered an anesthetic and a muscle relaxant to the physically weakened woman in her home without any medical need. However, fearing discovery, he then made an emergency call and falsely stated that he had found the woman in a “condition requiring resuscitation,” according to the indictment. Rescue workers were able to resuscitate the woman and took her to hospital, dpa reported.
The indictment said that “in continuation of his plan of action and in the knowledge of the injured party’s living will”, according to which the woman did not want any life-prolonging measures, the doctor is said to have called one of her daughters and apologized for violating this will. With the consent of both daughters, artificial respiration was discontinued and the woman died on Sept. 8 in a Berlin hospital.
An investigation into further suspected deaths is continuing.
A specially established investigation team in the homicide department of the Berlin State Criminal Police Office and the Berlin public prosecutor’s office investigated a total of 395 cases. In 95 of these cases, initial suspicion was confirmed and preliminary proceedings were initiated. In five cases, the initial suspicion was not substantiated.
In 75 cases, investigations are still ongoing in separate proceedings. Five exhumations are still planned for this separate procedure, prosecutors said.
Among the cases still being investigated is the death of the doctor's mother-in-law, who was suffering from cancer, court spokesman Sebastian Büchner said. Local media reported that she died during a visit by the doctor.
In 2019, a German nurse who murdered 87 patients by deliberately bringing about cardiac arrests was given a life sentence.
Earlier this month, German investigators in the northern town of Itzehoe said they were examining the case of a doctor who has been suspected of killing several patients.
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