The correctional facility in Oldenburg accuses a TV production company of having conducted an unauthorized interview with the prisoner and used it in the program for a controversial documentary about the patient killer Niels Högel.
Repeated interview requests from the company filmpool Entertainment GmbH have "emphatically rejected" the prison management, said the deputy head of the prison, Anna Abraham, of the Oldenburger Nordwest-Zeitung (Thursday).
The RTL streaming service TVNow published the documentation about the Högel case on Monday.
In addition to many other people involved in the case, the convicted murderer himself has a say.
Numerous victim representatives and experts reacted indignantly to the interview.
Abraham said that after the interview request was rejected, Högel and the production company "apparently used the prisoner's telephone option to still carry out an audio interview."
The prison sees itself "deliberately deceived and deceived".
After the first evidence of the incident had been submitted last week, "the prisoner's telephone options were immediately restricted".
Publication found unbearable
Abraham emphasized that television interviews with prisoners and film recordings in a correctional facility must be approved by the institution and, in a second step, by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice. She regrets the publication, which is felt to be unbearable for the victims and their bereaved. The media attention increases "the instinct for validity and self-portrayal of the prisoner" and is "incompatible with the treatment of Mr. Högel".
On Monday, the RTL group declared that criticizing the series, the "sensitive handling of the victims' feelings" always had the highest priority when creating the documentary.
All interviewees had been informed in advance that an interview with Högel would also be part of the program, and their consent had been given.
However, several participants and respondents disagreed with this.
You feel betrayed by RTL.
The former nurse Niels Högel was sentenced to life imprisonment on June 6, 2019 by the Oldenburg district court for a total of 85 murders in the clinics in Oldenburg and Delmenhorst.