German “paradise for criminals” under the microscope of the prosecutor's office. A big corruption scandal
It is not without reason that the prison in Euskirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany was referred to in the media as a “paradise for criminals”. There have been corruption scandals there before. This time the criminal operation was carried out on a large scale. The staff created a corruption system that eased the conditions of prisoners' sentences in exchange for bribes. The offers included: a kind of “subscription” to warnings about cell inspections. According to Ulrich Stein-Visarius, head of the criminal law department at the Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia, fictitious jobs were also to be created for inmates.
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Corruption scandal in Germany. Access keys have been lost
There were also other facilities “sold” for bribes, including providing their own and other people's apartments, as well as fictitious properties as prison registration addresses. This was to enable the prison management to transfer inmates to open facilities.
The suspects include eight prison employees. It is not known how many prisoners took advantage of the bribery system, but the prosecutor's office in Bonn is currently conducting proceedings against three former inmates who were allegedly associated with organized criminal groups. All three were to have the means to pay for the so-called prison subscriptions.
The police searched the prison in Euskirchen and the apartments of eight suspected prison employees. Their mobile phones, case files and data carriers were seized. During the proceedings, two original electronic access keys were also found missing — reported the dpa agency, citing information provided by the Ministry of Justice.
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As “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” reminds, this is not the first scandal related to the prison in Euskirchen. In 2022, a court in Bonn sentenced two men who had previously been held in the open system. At night, when they were supposed to be in prison, they regularly left the premises by jumping over the fence, then broke into gas stations, blew up three ATMs and robbed them of over PLN 200,000. euro.
The prison, described in the media as a “paradise for criminals”, has already caused controversy. During the coronavirus pandemic, there were, among others: to situations in which inmates left the prison in the evenings and outsiders entered the prison through the fence and organized illegal parties involving alcohol and drugs.
