FRANKFURT, GERMANY (BDCi) –A child murderer was awarded over four thousand dollars by the German court, on Thursday, because his human rights and dignity were violated.
The regional court in the state of Hesse found that Magnus Gaefgen’s “human rights” had been violated during the 2002 questioning on the disappearance of a banker’s 11-year-old son.
At the time, police believed that Jakob von Metzler was still alive because his parents had paid a one-million-euro ransom to Gaefgen.
As the abductor was refusing to reveal the boy’s whereabouts, two questioning officers threatened the arrested man with “unimaginable pain” to try to persuade him to disclose more.
The boy’s family owns Germany’s oldest private bank. Later, they found out he had been bound and gagged until suffocation.
The murderer was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison. However, Gaefgen filed a claim saying he was subjected to inhumane treatment during the questioning.
In awarding Gaefgen 3,000 euros plus interest, presiding judge Christoph Hefter said the killer had been the victim of “serious rights violations” that could not be rectified under German law without the payment of compensation.
According to BBC, the police union spokesman said the judgment was “emotionally very difficult to endure” and that police should be able to question a suspected killer to a certain degree so that a victim can be found quickly and hopefully alive.
By: Ana Paula Silvani
Source: BBC & AFP
August 04, 2011
2:15 p.m. PDT