Killer's £750,000 claim that torture threat breached his rights

Published on Monday 30 June 2008 22:19

A GERMAN man who kidnapped and murdered a young boy in a botched attempt to extort a million euros was not treated inhumanely when police threatened him with torture in an attempt to find the child, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

Magnus Gaefgen, 33, is estimated to have cost European taxpayers 750,000 with his attempt to claim a retrial for the 2002 murder of 11-year-old Jakob von Metzler, on the grounds that he was tortured.

He took his case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights after losing a bid for a new hearing in Germany.

In a written judgment yesterday, the court ruled that Gaefgen could not claim he was a victim of torture or degrading treatment, nor that he had been denied a fair trial.

The case centred on threats made to him when he was under arrest and the policeman in charge of the case thought Jakob was still alive.

The boy was the son of a private banker in Frankfurt

and had got to know Gaefgen, then a law student, through his sister. On 27 September, 2002, Gaefgen lured him into his flat by pretending Jakob's sister had left a jacket there. He then suffocated the child.

The policeman in charge of the case, Wolfgang Dascher, believed the boy was still alive and threatened to harm Gaefgen unless he told him where the child was being held.

Gaefgen had demanded a ransom of 1 million (790,000) from Jakob's family to pay if they wanted to see him again – and abandoned the boy's body under the jetty of a pond an hour's drive from Frankfurt.

On 30 September, at about 1am, Gaefgen collected the ransom at a tram station. He was placed under police surveillance and was arrested several hours later.

At this point, police thought Jakob was still alive and, under interrogation on 1 October, Gaefgen was told he could expect to undergo "considerable suffering" if he persisted in refusing to disclose the child's whereabouts. As a result of those threats, he disclosed where he had hidden the child's body.

His confession was ruled inadmissible to be used in court against him as it was obtained under duress, in contravention of EU human rights laws. But on 28 July, 2003, he was found guilty of abduction and murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. It was found that despite the fact that he had been informed at the start of his trial of his right to remain silent and that all his earlier statements could not be used against him, he nevertheless again confessed that he had kidnapped and killed the boy.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that, because Mr Dascher and another policeman had been punished with fines and suspension, and because two courts in Germany had refused to hear Gaefgen's request for a retrial while acknowledging he should not have been threatened, he did not qualify for a new hearing.

The case of the punished police officers created considerable debate in Germany. Many thought Mr Dascher was a hero.

Joachim Pfeiffer, a German legal expert, said; "Many people are stunned that it got this far at such cost to the public.

"It was a frivolous case that should probably never have been entertained."

Gaefgen will now have to serve at least another decade behind bars.

FACT BOX

THE European Court of Human Rights aims to apply and protect the civil and political rights of the continent's citizens.

These principles are set out in the European Convention on Human Rights, a landmark treaty drawn up after the end of the Second World War.

Most of the nations that have signed the convention, including the UK, have incorporated its principles into their own laws.

The court will only hear a case when all domestic legal avenues have been exhausted.

The court was established and is overseen by the Council of Europe, a pan-European human rights body. The council is a distinct entity and is not a branch of the European Union.