The release from custody of six people who are accused of serious violent crimes in Frankfurt, in one case even manslaughter, is now also occupying the Hessian state parliament.

As the SPD parliamentary group announced on Monday, they are requesting a special session of the legal committee.

The legal policy spokesman for the SPD, Gerald Kummer, called the process "incomprehensible" and sees the new Minister of Justice Roman Poseck (CDU) "as obliged to inform Parliament immediately about the details" and to present a plan, such as the lack of staff in the courts can be eliminated in the short term.

Catherine Iskandar

Responsible editor for the "Rhein-Main" department of the Sunday newspaper.

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The Frankfurt Regional Court had already pointed out the overloading of the authority in April of this year, as the party's statement goes on to say.

At that time, nothing happened in the Ministry of Justice, which was still under Poseck's predecessor Eva Kühne-Hörmann (CDU).

The new Minister of Justice, in his capacity as President of the Higher Regional Court, had also warned of precisely this situation.

At the time, he described it as a "bankruptcy of the rule of law" if accused criminals had to be released from custody because the courts were overburdened and could no longer conduct all upcoming negotiations.

"Now the bankruptcy is here," criticizes Kummer, "the rule of law in Hesse makes itself ridiculous in the eyes of the public."

layoffs have risen sharply

Apparently, the overburdening of courts with the result that, in the worst case, criminals have to be released, is not a problem originally from Hessia.

According to research by the "Deutsche Richterzeitung", the criminal justice system released at least 66 suspects from custody nationwide in 2021 because their criminal proceedings lasted too long.

Last year, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein reported the highest numbers of all federal states, each with eleven releases from prison due to unacceptably long proceedings.

Overall, however, the number has increased significantly compared to the previous year: in 2020, the judicial administrations of the federal states reported a total of 40 cases.

In the past five years, almost 300 suspects have been released from custody for violating the speed-up rule in custody cases.

According to Sven Rebehn, Federal Director of the German Association of Judges, one of the reasons for this development is the lack of staff and the complexity on which many procedures are now based.

Criminal proceedings are becoming more and more complex, more and more data has to be evaluated, says Rebehn.

“Always think the police and the judiciary in parallel”

This is also confirmed by the Association of German Criminal Investigators.

Its federal chairman Dirk Peglow, who also heads the Hessian state association, says that one must “always think of the police and the judiciary in parallel”.

Any investigations carried out by the police will be continued by the judiciary.

Procedures are becoming more and more complex, the investigations into crypto communication by organized crime are a key recent example that shows how much staff is needed on both sides.

Due to the close cooperation with the judiciary, it can now be observed more and more frequently that prosecutors continue to work on cases after work or at weekends, sometimes even during holidays.

From a police point of view, Peglow believes that the rule of law pact is urgently needed to be improved.

The police union also expressed concern.

The Hessian state chairman Jens Mohrherr said that "the impossible" had now happened, which had been warned for a long time.

"How should citizens, but also police officers, explain this capitulation of the rule of law?"

Overloads in the judiciary, a lack of judges and public prosecutors have been denounced by the judges' association for several years, most recently in January 2022.

Around 200 jobs would have to be created.

However, nothing happened.