German Palliative Care Doctor Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Murdering 15 Patients

Kathmandu. A palliative care doctor in Germany has been sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of murdering 15 of his patients. 

A Berlin court found the 41-year-old doctor, identified only as 'Johannes M.' in accordance with German privacy laws, guilty. He murdered 12 women and 3 men between September 2021 and July 2024. 

According to officials, this incident may only be the beginning. Prosecutors are currently investigating dozens of other cases involving the doctor. His victims were in the age group of 25 to 94 years. During the court hearing, it was stated that although all of them were seriously ill, none were in immediate danger of death. 

Prosecutors said the doctor would visit patients at their homes and administer lethal doses of various drug mixtures without their consent. In some cases, he even set fire to the patients' homes to conceal his crimes. 

Shortly before his arrest in July 2024, the doctor took the lives of two patients in a single day. He first murdered a 75-year-old man at his home in central Berlin and a few hours later took the life of a 76-year-old woman in a neighboring district. He attempted to set fire to the woman's house but was unsuccessful. 

During the court proceedings, which lasted for about a year, the doctor remained mostly silent. Only last month did he admit to 'murdering' 12 of his terminally ill patients. He claimed in court that he was doing the right thing and that he was saving the patients from 'suffering and weakness'. 

He told the court, 'In this process, I thought this was the best thing for everyone.' He also apologized for the suffering he caused. 

Police suspect he has murdered other patients and are investigating an additional 76 cases. According to German media, if these additional cases are proven, this will be the biggest serial murder case in German history. 

Earlier, the victims' relatives told the court that they still could not believe this. The mother of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman who died in 2021, said tearfully, 'She never said she didn't want to live anymore.' 

Similarly, the son of a 72-year-old woman who died in 2024 said that his mother was planning to go on a trip to the Baltic Sea with her sister, saying, 'My mother still wanted to live.' 

The court deemed the doctor's crimes extremely serious and ordered him to be kept in custody even after his prison sentence. The court also banned him from practicing medicine for life.