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CRIME

Group therapy deaths caused by Ecstasy overdoses

Autopsies show that two men who died after a group therapy session in Berlin last month both suffered an overdose of Ecstasy, daily Berliner Morgenpost reported on Wednesday.

Published: 7 October 2009 15:35 CEST
Group therapy deaths caused by Ecstasy overdoses
Photo: DPA

On September 19, a psychotherapist offered 12 patients drugs for a group session in his Hermsdorf neighbourhood home. Nine patients accepted at least one of the two drugs – Ecstasy and ephedrine. But things went wrong and the two men aged 28 and 59 died. A third 55-year-old man fell into a coma.

According to Berliner Morgenpost he has now since awoken and his condition is improving.

The doctor was arrested after the deaths and remains in police custody on suspicion of two counts of bodily harm with fatal consequences and six counts of dangerous bodily harm.

A sign in front of the doctor’s office offered special psychiatric treatments including psychoactive substances. These reportedly included LSD and psychedelic mushrooms, which are illegal in Germany.

Berliner Morgenpost reported that members of the therapy group had been offered the drugs at previous sessions and knew what they were doing.

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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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