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Regional court in Essen
Photo: Bernd Thissen / dpa
A former doctor at the Essen University Hospital has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for manslaughter.
The judges at the Essen District Court are convinced that the doctor administered a lethal dose of potassium chloride to a Covid 19 patient from the Netherlands in November 2020.
The 45-year-old doctor had denied that in the process.
"We couldn't do anything more," he told the judges.
Therefore, the life support devices were turned off in coordination with the relatives.
As a result, the 47-year-old patient died.
Medicines were only given to alleviate the dying process.
However, the judges saw it differently.
The judgment is not final.
The defendant is said to have been overwhelmed
"You lied to the relatives in which you told them that the dying trial was imminent," said Judge Jörg Schmitt, addressing the defendant when giving the reasons for the verdict.
The deceased patient's wife appeared as a joint plaintiff.
Senior Public Prosecutor Birgit Jürgens had spoken of active euthanasia in her plea.
That is a punishable offense.
For them it is clear that the defendant wanted to shorten suffering: "Probably because he was overwhelmed."
A nurse had sounded the alarm at the time.
When questioned at the hospital, the defendant admitted to having given the patient an overdose of potassium chloride.
"You told your colleagues that you wanted to end the patient's suffering," says Richter Schmitt.
The defense had pleaded for acquittal.
The doctor is said to have told "lies"
During the investigation and in court, the doctor kept telling different stories in order to obtain an acquittal, said a court spokesman.
However, the court did not believe the "lies".
The chamber did not issue a professional ban.
The defendant has been in custody since November 18.
He is charged with two other cases of manslaughter which, according to the court, are "similar".
In these two cases, however, the information so far has not been sufficient to open a process.
ptz / dpa / AFP
