'Angels of death' win early release from jail

Published on Thursday 17 July 2008 22:11

AUSTRIA'S "angels of death" – two former nurses' aides serving life sentences for killing at least 20 elderly patients by injecting them with drugs or forcing water into their lungs – will be released early from prison.

The justice ministry said yesterday that Waltraud Wagner, 49, and Irene Leidolf, 46, would be freed by the end of August on a conditional basis because of good behaviour while behind bars since 1991.

"The death angels are getting out!" the Heute newspaper headlined, underscoring widespread angst over a seven-year killing spree most Austrians would prefer to forget.

Although both Wagner and Leidolf were convicted of murder in the 1983-89 killings at Vienna's Lainz Hospital and sentenced to life imprisonment, in Austria that maximum penalty typically means 15 years of imprisonment.

Authorities declined to comment on a report in the weekly magazine News detailing how both women allegedly have for months been free to leave the prison for day trips to get their hair done or do some shopping. News said the outings were part of a pre-release programme designed to prepare the pair for their new life outside prison. Wagner, Leidolf and two accomplices were convicted of what they had said were mercy killings of old and chronically-ill patients.

Prosecutors countered that the killings were cold-blooded murder. The presiding judge denounced the women's "malicious methods" – administering intravenous injections of large doses of insulin and tranquillisers, or pushing tongues aside and pouring water down the elderly patients' windpipes.

The two accomplices, Maria Gruber and Stefanija Mayer, were convicted as accessories on lesser charges of attempted murder and manslaughter. Both were released a few years ago and were given new identities as a precaution against vigilantes.