Sleep deprivation – Middelhoff ill in custody – Frankfurter Rundschau

08 April 2015

Thomas Middelhoff (center) and his lawyers Udo Wackernagel (l.) and Winfried Holter Müller, 2014. Photo: rtr

The former top managers Thomas Middelhoff is ill in custody from a rare immune disease. His lawyers blame the conditions in the prison responsible: was the manager “sick from prison circumstances”

The nights between 14 November and 9.. December 2014 and the night on 19 December are for Thomas Middelhoff (61) in the prison food probably expired as follows: Heavy footsteps echo down the hall. Every 15 minutes an officer opens the door plate to his solitary cell, the light turns on to ascertain whether the prisoner lives. Each of these visual inspections is meticulously documented

A total of 672 hours -. During the day and at night – take this procedure established by the prison administration with the fear of a so-called balance-suicide. “The risk is particularly high among people who come from a carefree life in high society,” says Peter Brock, president of the union prison in North Rhine-Westphalia. “At Thomas Middelhoff you could not take the risk. He had counted with an acquittal and was arrested from the courtroom out. This is a brutal slap in the face for someone who has never come into contact with the law. “

The former top manager was on 14 November 2014 by the district court for its food sentenced private flights at the expense of Arcandor Group for embezzlement and tax evasion to three years in prison and was then immediately transferred to the prison because the view of the judge is an increased risk of absconding. All bonding complaints have been rejected. The decision is not yet final. Until the Federal Court for a review decides

should still take up to nine months. The permanent sleep deprivation was performed at her client to a serious autoimmune disease that had been on top of that treated inadequately write Middelhoff’s lawyers and make a comparison with the control methods at the US prison camp at Guantanamo. You have initiated legal action against the prison administration. A possible suicide risk was clearly supported by any admission to prison from their perspective. On the contrary: In his transfer to prison you have Middelhoff classified as suitable volunteer. The question of whether he was suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts cherish he had explicitly denied, citing the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” with the consent of the ex-manager of the medical record. Thereafter, the 1.91 meter Middelhoff has lost more than 17 kilos since his arrest, weighs now only 70 kilograms

Since mid-November 2014 Thomas Middelhoff sitting in the prison food a convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion. Photo: AP

This disease should be suspected as to act “chilblain lupus”. On Tuesday Middelhoff was moved again in the University Hospital of Essen. There he was stationary before the end of February for a week in treatment. The monitoring Middelhoff’s was not an isolated case, says the prison expert Peter Brock. “In a prison as in food every night 20 to 30 prisoners because of problems of suicide risk. The vast majority have very quickly become accustomed and do not notice it when the lights go on for a short time. “These controls there was no alternative. After all, it had been possible to reduce the number of suicides per year in NRW 21 to 28 in the 1990s to more than eleven in the past three years. “Just imagine the right, in case Middelhoff would actually happened. Then all the world should speak of a legal scandal, “said Brock.

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In NRW Ministry of Justice to support the actions of the prison administration. There have been several reviewers who have seen in the case Middelhoff a suicide risk, especially since it had already been in his family suicide. In the former Arcandor manager had reported in criminal proceedings before the Essen district court itself.

To reinforce his tireless efforts for Arcandor, Middelhoff then led to the suicide of his brother in 2006, from whom he learned by phone in a meeting with investors. Middelhoff literally: “Should I cry? I went back inside. I did it for the company. “

At the request of the CDU group in Düsseldorf parliament, the Legal Committee will deal with the issue. The Ministry of Justice has at the hearing on 22 April Taking a stand.