US judicial pardon: Jens Soering returns to Germany on Tuesday

The pardoned double murderer Jens Soering will be deported to Germany early next week, according to SPIEGEL information. The American Immigration Service ICE informed the German authorities that Söring would be put on a scheduled flight to Frankfurt am Main on Monday evening. After the seven-hour night flight, the 53-year-old will land in Frankfurt on Tuesday morning.

Jens Soering was imprisoned for over 30 years after a court convicted in 1991 that he murdered the parents of his then girlfriend, Elizabeth Haysom, in Virginia in 1985. At that time Söring was sentenced to life imprisonment twice, and Haysom received 90 years in prison. (Read more about the Jens Soering case here.)

At the end of November, a pardon committee surprisingly decided that Söring would be released and deported to Germany. A circle of supporters will receive him at Frankfurt (read an interview with a supporter here: "He dreams of not walking in circles for hours").

He can never go to the United States again

The deportation itself will be civil. Söring is accompanied to the airport by an immigration detention center in Virginia, but can then fly unaccompanied to Germany on a scheduled flight. The German embassy had issued him with a replacement passport for the travel formalities about a week ago. However, he is never allowed to go to the USA again.

Söring will enter Frankfurt as normal. In Germany himself, he faces no further persecution because of the crime, since the American judiciary has worked on the case and he was imprisoned there. At the airport, Söring wants to read out a short statement at a press conference and ask that he can reintegrate into normal life without much media hype.