The trial of the death of a child in a sect in Hanau in 1988 can continue.

The public prosecutor's office had rejected the judges in a bias application, but could not enforce it.

The criminal chamber of the Hanau Regional Court remains responsible for the case, as it became known on Friday.

Prosecutors had accused the judges of being biased in favor of the defendants.

Jan Schiefenhoevel

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The mother of the four-year-old boy is accused of having murdered her son or at least having aided him.

According to the indictment, on a warm August day 34 years ago, the child was put in a self-sewn cloth sack for a nap, which was closed over his head.

According to the investigation, the boy became unconscious due to the lack of oxygen and choked on his vomit.

In September 2020, the alleged leader of the sect was therefore already convicted of murder by the Hanau Regional Court, who was the only adult at home when the child died according to the verdict.

The Federal Court of Justice overturned this judgment in March on appeal by the accused, as became known in May.

After the decision of the federal judges, the Frankfurt Regional Court has to rule on the alleged cult leader Sylvia D. in a new trial.

Judges behaved unfairly

In the second trial against the mother of the killed child, Claudia H., currently before the Hanau Regional Court, the public prosecutor's office accused the three professional judges, including the former court president Susanne Wetzel, of partiality and unfair litigation a good two weeks ago.

The public prosecutor Dominik Mies justified the fact that the judges had released Claudia H. from custody in March and that the criminal court did not want to summon as a witness those members of the religious community who, according to statements in the first cult trial, had sewn the cloth bag for the child .

The prosecutor had accused the judges of already knowing about the decision of the Federal Court of Justice on the first cult trial against Sylvia D. and allowing themselves to be influenced by it in the ongoing proceedings against Claudia H..

The judges acted unfairly by not informing prosecutors of the federal judges' decision for two months.

Dismissal of defendants not evidence of bias

Other judges at the Hanau Regional Court have rejected the prosecutor's application for bias, as Wetzel announced at the hearing on Friday.

The district court in Hanau only found out about the decision of the Federal Court of Justice in March, in a letter dated May 19.

This delay comes about because it can take several weeks to create and edit the written version of the decision with justification.

There is no evidence that the three professional judges were informed beforehand, for example through informal channels.

The release of the accused Claudia H. from custody is also no evidence of bias in the criminal court, according to the judges, who had to decide on the bias.

According to Wetzel, the reason for lifting the arrest warrant was that on August 1988, the leader of the community and not the child's mother could have pulled the sack over the four-year-old's head.