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CRIME

Investigators probe 480 doctors for corruption

German state prosecutors are to open investigations into 480 doctors suspected of helping to sell medication in exchange for rewards from a pharmaceutical company, Der Spiegel reported Saturday.

Published: 19 July 2009 10:16 CEST
Investigators probe 480 doctors for corruption
Photo: DPA

According to the magazine, doctors received household goods in exchange for putting patients onto drug monitoring studies for the drug company Trommsdorff.

A form in the studies invited doctors to tick boxes next to which reward they would like to receive – for 5 patients they could get a flat-screen TV or an iPod, for 7 patients a DVD recorder, for 12 patients a coffee machine, for 14 patients a satellite navigation system, and for 18 patients they could choose between a laptop, a digital projector, and a desktop computer with printer.

Drug monitoring studies are ostensibly designed to observe the side effects of medication, but are treated with suspicion because many believe their main purpose is to boost sales.

Trommsdorff declined to tell Der Spiegel how many doctors had received the gifts, but assured the magazine that they were “fully cooperating” with the state prosecutors.

Up until now, the investigation has centred on managers and sales representatives of Trommsdorff. The move to investigate 480 doctors across the country marks a significant widening of the operation.

“I can’t rule out that this number won’t increase significantly,” senior public prosecutor Robert Deller told Der Spiegel.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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