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She is said to have pretended to be a doctor, gave lectures, wanted to become mayor - but this Wednesday, the 50-year-old shies away from the public.

The photo and film journalists wait in vain for the door behind the dock of the Kassel regional court to open.

The accused does not want to be filmed, says the presiding judge.

When the door finally opens, a stocky woman enters the room.

The eyes are lowered, the glasses are on the head in the dark hair.

The 50-year-old does not take off the surgical mask - although there is no mask requirement in the hall.

With her eyes closed, she listens as the prosecutor reads the indictment.

The investigators accuse the Germans of being an impostor and multiple murderer.

The 50-year-old is said to have pretended to be a doctor for years without the appropriate training and killed five people and injured others through medical errors.

According to the indictment, the woman had obtained a job in the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Fritzlar (Schwalm-Eder district) between 2015 and 2018.

There she is said to have worked as an assistant doctor and anesthetized patients.

The defendant rejects the murder charge

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She is charged, among other things, with murder in five cases in the unlawful practice of medicine, attempted murder in eleven cases in unity with dangerous bodily harm and forgery of documents.

The prosecutor describes the consequences of the offenses: wrongly dosed narcotics, untreated sepsis, hours of oxygen deficiency, damage to the cardiovascular system, organ failure.

Sometimes the defendant reacted too slowly, sometimes not at all, to the complications during the anesthesia.

The 50-year-old says nothing about the allegations.

Your defense attorney read out a statement.

In it, he admits: The evidence will show that his client was working as a false doctor, that her professional life can be traced back in parts to imposture.

He rejects the murder charge.

There was no intent to kill.

The woman trusted that the patients would not be injured and she had no reason to doubt her own abilities.

She was involved in the successful anesthesia of 500 patients.

The public prosecutor points out that the woman has not completed training as a doctor.

Her career is complicated: she kept switching between universities in Kassel, Mainz and Frankfurt, sometimes studying biology, sometimes dentistry.

The 50-year-old takes an alternative practitioner exam.

There are also numerous internships and seminars in a wide variety of areas.

Some of the evidence is dubious.

Graduation and doctorate finally took place in biology.

At the University of Kassel, however, plagiarism proceedings are still ongoing because of her doctoral thesis.

Bought a second PhD on the internet?

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But one title was apparently not enough: she is said to have bought a second doctorate on the Internet.

In addition, the woman was looking for the public: She was a lecturer, ran for mayoral elections in the Kassel district, and discussed on the Internet.

According to the public prosecutor, the fact that she endangered human life and continued after death was due to the fear of losing her status as a doctor: "She acted because of an excessive need for recognition and selfishness."

After her work in Fritzlar, the woman moved to the rehabilitation department of a clinic in Schleswig-Holstein - according to investigators, again with false information.

But when changing the medical association, the discrepancies in their records were discovered.

The defendant reacted with a self-disclosure, but the Hesse Medical Association and her former employer also reported her.

For the trial in Kassel, another twelve days of negotiations are scheduled until the end of March.