Despite serious crimes, many criminals in Berlin are still at large due to unexecuted arrest warrants, including cases involving murder and manslaughter.
Thousands of convicted criminals in Berlin are still free because their arrest warrants have not been executed. Among them are 59 convicted murderers and 66 individuals convicted of manslaughter as of July 1st. These figures were revealed in a response by the Berlin Senate’s Department of Justice to a parliamentary inquiry by Left Party representative Sebastian Schlüsselburg. Overall, 8,581 arrest warrants are outstanding, compared to 7,653 at the same time last year.
In addition, the Berlin police are searching for nearly 1,767 suspects who are supposed to be in pre-trial detention. Among these, 57 are suspected of having committed murder and should be in jail awaiting their trial. Last year, the number of suspects wanted for pre-trial detention was similar, at 1,761.
High number of outstanding arrest warrants is concerning
Schlüsselburg, the legal policy spokesman, called the situation “alarming.” He emphasized that these developments are not good news for the rule of law, particularly the high number of criminals convicted of serious offenses like murder or manslaughter who remain free. He called on Berlin’s Justice Senator Felor Badenberg (CDU) to provide an explanation.
It’s possible that convicted criminals do not go to prison immediately if a verdict is not yet final. CDU legal expert Sven Rissmann explained to the “B.Z.” newspaper that convicted criminals can, for example, go home due to illness or if their pre-trial detention period has expired. In such cases, they receive a written notice to report for imprisonment. Only highly dangerous criminals are pursued by special investigators, not in every case.
The Senate’s Department of Justice referenced data from a police tracking system, indicating that 5,773 of the outstanding arrest warrants for convicted criminals (2023: 5,266) have been open for more than six months. In 1,358 cases (2023: 1,417), the search is for suspects who should be in pre-trial detention.
