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Defendant Bekim H. in the courtroom
Photo: Paul Zinken / dpa
The fall is a nightmare.
A girl is dead. And the man in the dock is well known to the Berlin judiciary.
Bekim H. spent thirteen years in forensic psychiatry.
In 2014 he was paroled.
An expert at the time judged that his crime prognosis was favorable.
A mistake.
Since Thursday, Bekim H., 42, has had to answer for murder and attempted rape of a 15-year-old before the 32nd Large Criminal Chamber at the Berlin Regional Court.
It is August 5, 2020, shortly before 2 a.m., when Bekim H. and the girl meet at the Ostkreuz S-Bahn station in Berlin.
The 15-year-old comes drunk from a party with friends.
There are videos from surveillance cameras.
They are supposed to show how Bekim H. and the girl leave the train station together.
You should drink beer.
Bekim H. has speed with it.
He is said to have offered the girl the drug and also consumed it with him.
He covers the dead girl with twigs
The two walk in the direction of Rummelsburger See, a bay in the Spree.
A witness notices how the two laughingly climb over a fence to get to a wasteland.
According to the indictment, Bekim H. decides there at the latest to rape the 15-year-old.
He begins to undress the teenagers.
She fights against.
He brings her to the ground, grabs her feet, drags her into a bush and tries to rape her there.
When the girl continues to resist, Bekim H. squeezes his neck with one hand.
This is what Attorney General Ralph Knispel puts forward in the indictment.
Bekim H. covers the dead girl with twigs.
On the same day, he presented himself to the police, accompanied by a lawyer.
The prosecutor is convinced that the defendant killed the youth for fear of prosecution.
Killing out of cover-up is considered murder.
Bekim H. faces life imprisonment, re-placement in psychiatry - and possibly preventive detention.
He shields his face from view
While the chief public prosecutor is bringing the charges, Bekim H. tries to hide himself in the dock.
With one hand he shields his already masked face from the eyes of the people in the hall.
Across from him, a few meters away, sit the sister and mother of his victim.
You are participating in the process as joint plaintiffs.
Immediately after the indictment was read out, the presiding judge, Matthias Schertz, ended the day of the trial.
Because only on this day do those involved in the process receive the preliminary psychiatric report.
And the defense only wants to comment after reading it, whether and, if so, how your client will get involved in the allegations.
One question is "how is Mr H.'s illness related to the crime," said defense attorney Jan Zielke in court.
The victim's family also has questions.
Mother and sister do not formulate it themselves, but let their lawyer Christina Clemm and their lawyer Sven Peitzner speak for themselves after the trial.
"You basically have to change something"
"Why was the defendant at large without control?" This question worries the family, says lawyer Clemm.
She speaks of "disastrous conditions" in the penal system and in forensic aftercare.
"I think you have to change something fundamentally."
Clemm assumes a murder out of misogyny.
She speaks of a »femicide«, that is, that Bekim H. killed the girl because of her gender.
Clemm also says: "You could have seen how dangerous he was." Because Bekim H. was conspicuous again and again, even after his discharge from the clinic.
She says the act could have been prevented if his misogyny and dangerousness had been properly considered.
In fact, according to SPIEGEL, Bekim H. has several criminal records.
He was born in Berlin.
His mother drank too much and abused him.
Bekim H. came to the home, failed at school, never learned a trade and got by with odd jobs.
Alcohol, drugs and violence shape his life.
He tried to kill himself
In 1999 he was convicted of assault.
He had hit one man in the head with his fist and hit another in the face with a bunch of keys.
In 2001 he was investigated on suspicion of rape of a 16-year-old girl.
The case is closed.
One night in June that year, he raped and seriously injured a 68-year-old woman.
Bekim H. knew the woman.
She looked after the children of a couple with whom Bekim H. was friends.
The woman looked after the children that night too.
The mother and her significant other were out of the house.
According to a court decision, at around 11.30 p.m., Bekim H. climbed over a pipe on the facade of the house onto the balcony of the apartment.
He got in through the balcony door.
In the apartment he brutally attacked the woman.
He raped her several times.
One of the children, a three year old boy, woke up and witnessed the crime.
Bekim H. was still in the apartment when the mother and her partner returned.
He talked confused and tried to kill himself.
In November 2001, the court followed the assessment of an expert in its judgment.
Accordingly, at the time of the crime, Bekim H. was under the influence of alcohol and drugs and was in a "psychologically desolate state".
The psychiatrist identified him as having a severe personality disorder and below-average intelligence, which made the disorder worse.
The court found that Bekim was incapable of guilt and ordered him to be placed in the forensic clinic.
In the clinic, too, Bekim H. is said to have repeatedly become suspicious.
He provoked patients and threatened nurses with scissors in 2011.
In 2012 he received the first relaxation, was allowed to leave the clinic and temporarily move into a supervised shared apartment.
Discharged from the clinic on probation
It was the time when he met a woman.
The relationship is said to have lasted six years.
She wasn't happy.
According to the woman, Bekim H. is said to have become increasingly violent.
He is said to have offended her while she slept and found it particularly pleasurable to choke her to the point of breathlessness.
He is said to have consumed drugs almost every day and also physically abused her child.
In 2013, Bekim H. received another psychiatric assessment.
The expert came to the conclusion that Bekim H. had managed to live without drugs and alcohol for several years.
He said that there was no longer any sexual sadism or serious personality disorder.
He no longer considered it dangerous.
In June 2014, Bekim H. was released on parole from the clinic.
While still in the clinic, the defendant made friends with a fellow gay patient.
The boyfriend was in a relationship.
In November 2019, the relationship broke up, the partner wanted to break up.
Bekim H. apparently wanted to prevent the separation.
He is said to have threatened the man to beat him and to cut off everything "downstairs" if he leaves his friend.
A month later, he is said to have threatened two other men with a knife, which is why Bekim H. now has to answer for attempted coercion in court.
Eight months later, Bekim H. meets the girl at Ostkreuz train station and takes her to Rummelburger Bucht.
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