An unjustly detained Syrian died two weeks after a fire in his prison cell. This was reported by a spokesman for the prosecutor Kleve.
In mid-September, a fire broke out in the cell of the 26-year-old in the German town of Kleve. The young man suffered severe burns. On Friday, the authorities admitted that the wrong person was sitting in the cell. The Syrian has therefore spent more than two months innocently in prison - and paid with life for it. He died on Saturday in a Bochum clinic.
The public prosecutor Kleve initiated on Friday a preliminary investigation on suspicion of deprivation of liberty against several officials of the district police Kleve. It must be clarified how it could come to the identity confusion, said a spokesman for the prosecutor.
Failures of the police
"There are some reasons for individual failures of police officers in the arrest," said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition to the investigative and disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against the officials. "We take this very seriously and also check the procedures at the police in Kleve," it said in Dusseldorf.
The one he was looking for, a man from Mali, had spent himself with the name that the Syrian wore. This name was in addition to the correct name of the wanted as an alias in the arrest warrant from Hamburg noted, as the investigators explained.
This was the disaster for the Syrians: On July 6, the police in the town of Geldern checked his personal details. The query in the search system showed a hit. According to the prosecutor, the Syrian was first taken to the prison in Geldern and later to Kleve, where it then came to the cell fire.
Many questions are open
In July, the Hamburg prosecutor's office had, according to their own information, asked whether the identity of the detainee was actually clarified. "We routinely do that when there are aliases," said a spokeswoman for the Hamburg investigative body. The routine question had been answered from Kleve with a "No" - the Syrian was not released, however.
The Hamburg had then nachgehakt again, a spokeswoman said: On what basis the Syrians would be detained, one had wanted to know. What became of this second demand is currently unclear.
Other questions have to be clarified: Was a wanted photo of the wanted person from Mali included? Would a look have been enough to clear up the mistake? "This is now part of the investigation," said prosecutor Günter Neifer in Kleve.
In addition to the Syrian, ten other people - eight servants and two cellmates - suffered from smoke poisoning in the prison fire. Prison leader Udo Gansweidt had classified a suicide immediately after the fire as unlikely, because the 26-year-old should have been sitting only until mid-October: "For such a few days no one kills." Maybe he had fallen asleep with a cigarette, it had been called then.
The supposed reason for detention lay in the area of petty crime: an unpaid fine for theft.