A 19-year-old man convicted of murder and rape, among other things, is released from custody because the proceedings were too long. The young man has been in custody since March 2020, according to the Palatinate Higher Regional Court in Zweibrücken. The judgment of the Frankenthal district court in August 2022 is not yet final. Formally, the pre-trial detention therefore continued. Several media had previously reported on the case.

According to the first verdict, the now 19-year-old raped and strangled a 17-year-old at a pond in Ludwigshafen on March 12, 2020. According to the judges, he also sexually abused three other girls.

The main hearing before the Frankenthal district court against the then 17-year-old began in September 2020. In August 2022, the then 19-year-old was sentenced to a youth sentence of ten years on three counts of murder, fatal rape and child sexual abuse. Both the accused and the public prosecutor's office in Frankenthal appealed.

The Palatinate Higher Regional Court in Zweibrücken now upheld the man's arrest complaint after Thursday's notification, lifted the arrest warrant and ordered the accused's release. The reason given was that the continued detention was no longer compatible with the defendant's claim for an accelerated sentencing. According to the court, the delays were not his fault and the length of the pre-trial detention was disproportionate.

In the main hearing, which lasted more than 22 months, only 57 days were negotiated. On 20 of these negotiation days, the sessions lasted less than two hours. The resulting delay amounts to a total of almost six months.