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The accused former judge at the beginning of the trial in the Gera regional court
Photo: Bodo Schackow / dpa
A former judge at the Gera regional court is accused of allegedly giving her father access to a terminally ill patient in a nursing home during the Corona period. The public prosecutor accuses her of perverting the course of justice. The woman did not comment at the start of the trial. She was 33 years old at the time of the crime and, among other things, worked as an on-call judge for the Gera regional court district.
As a pastor, the defendant's father provided pastoral care to an 89-year-old palliative patient. However, the home management denied him access to the senior citizen in April 2020, citing existing rules that did not allow visits due to the infection situation in the corona pandemic.
Dismissed from service as a probationary judge
Specifically, according to the indictment, the now 37-year-old woman is said to have discussed with her father that she could give him access to the nursing home through interim legal protection. According to the public prosecutor's office, that's exactly what happened: The pastor is said to have submitted a corresponding application on April 14, 2020, when his daughter was the on-call judge at the time. The defendant is then said to have made a decision to allow her father access to the terminally ill patient. The woman knew that she was not allowed to handle the case because, as a daughter, she was legally considered biased, according to the accusation.
The woman was dismissed from her position as a probationary judge. She now works as a lawyer in a law firm. Her defense attorney made several motions at the hearing. In his view, several of the professional judges in the trial are biased and should not continue the proceedings. A decision on the application is expected at the upcoming hearing date on April 24th.
kfr/dpa