Investigation of the hostage-taking in Burg prison is ongoing

Created: 2022-12-14Updated: 2022-12-14, 3:56 p.m

Day breaks over the wire-proof wall of the Burg correctional facility.

© Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa

After the Halle assassin was taken hostage, more details gradually became known.

The prison director has now described the events to parliamentarians.

However, it is unclear how exactly the perpetrator was able to bring the servants into his power.

Burg/Magdeburg – It is still unclear which object the Halle assassin used in the prison in Burg near Magdeburg to temporarily take two servants hostage.

Facility manager Ulrike Hagemann spoke on Wednesday in the legal committee of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament of a "thing" that she and the employees only saw briefly.

It looked like something "homemade" and made a "gunshot-like noise".

It is the task of the investigating authorities to clarify what the prisoner could have done with it.

The public prosecutor's office in Naumburg took over the investigation on Wednesday.

This is also related to the importance of the case, said a spokesman for the authority.

The hostage-taker was interrogated.

The 30-year-old had taken two servants into his power on Monday evening and wanted to force his way to freedom.

He was overpowered in less than an hour.

The head of the maximum security prison described the processes in detail.

During the so-called night lock, the prisoner surprised an employee of the correctional facility (JVA) and held an "object" in front of him.

The prisoner said, "We're going out now."

The officer complied with this request out of fear for his life.

When an alarm was triggered, more employees were added.

After a gate was opened by another officer, the prisoner entered a courtyard.

The second officer was then taken hostage, said Hagemann.

Other colleagues positioned themselves and overpowered the prisoner when he was inattentive for a moment.

Facility director Hagemann praised the behavior of the JVA officials when the hostages were taken.

In particular, one employee who was taken hostage behaved very “skillfully”.

He had prepared for his colleagues to overpower the prisoner when he was briefly inattentive.

Everything that is trained in exercises has been implemented, said Hagemann.

According to her, the officials taken hostage were young employees.

The assassin and hostage-taker had already been questioned by investigators on Tuesday.

The German press agency learned this from security circles.

It is not yet known whether the prisoner commented on the incident.

"We are conducting intensive investigations," said a spokesman for the State Criminal Police Office (LKA).

The Halle assassin is currently being held in a specially secured cell in the JVA Burg.

A relocation of the prisoner Stephan Balliet to another federal state is in the room.

According to the Justice Department, this is standard procedure after such an incident.

The assassin was sentenced to life imprisonment and subsequent preventive detention in December 2020.

On October 9, 2019, Yom Kippur, the highest Jewish holiday, he tried to storm the synagogue in Halle and cause a massacre.

When he was unable to get onto the premises, he murdered a 40-year-old passer-by in front of the synagogue and a 20-year-old in a nearby kebab shop.

He injured other people while fleeing.

The perpetrator had already built his own weapons for the attack in Halle.

Prison director Hagemann said that the inmates had a lot of time in prison and developed a lot of imagination about how they could convert and repurpose everyday objects.

She stressed that the assassin's and hostage-taker's mail had been carefully checked.

During visits, very close attention was paid to prevent the transfer of prohibited items.

dpa