Too much forgiveness


Egon Krenz, the former GDR state- and party chief has been set free this thursday afternoon. He only spent a good half of his sentence's time in jail, the remaining two and a half years have been set on probation. Krenz had been committed for manslaughter on GDR border fugitives.
The district court had rejected the request for premature dismissal because of the weight of the debt, but the superior Court of Justice didn't agree. A court spokesmen said: " He has a place of work. The social prognosis is good. We assume that he won't commit no more crimes."
Excerpts from "Der Tagesspiegel" 19.12.2003

There's a critical subject. On the 13th of january 2000 Krenz had to go to prison, presumably for six years. An already softening aspect in the sentence had been that Krenz allegedly contributed to an "un-bloody progression of the Wende ("turn"?)". Over all the time that he "spent in jail" he had it easy and was a so-called "Freigänger". That means that he only had to spend the nights there and could leave in the daytime for work reasons. He even could go on holidays of 21 days length each year! In this time he built his house at the Ostsee by the way.

Now Egon Krenz, the man who was found responsible for four of the killings along the border of Berlin's wall, has been remitted and will be free - after only 3 years in prison.
Explanation is, that he is unlikely to committ another crime, as Fatina Keilani writes in "Der Tagesspiegel":
"Das Berliner Kammergericht kam zu der Überzeugung, daß von Krenz keine weiteren Straftaten zu erwarten seien. Eine DDR. deren Führung er übernehmen könnte, gibt es nicht mehr"
Translated: " The superior Court of Justice in berlin came to the conviction that from Krenz no further criminal offences were to be expected. A GDR, of which he could take over guidance, doesn't exist anymore."
[I apologize, if I get very direct and cynical now.]
But that argumentation is nearly as if -hypothetically-Hitler had been caught after killing all Jewish people, and had been set free a couple of years later, with the explanation that he was unlikely to commit more killings - in brackets: because there were no more Jews alive that he could kill!
I know, this opinion might sound extrem to some people, but as I said, it's a comparison, and I exaggerated deliberately to make my point clear. I don't intend to equate Hitler's crimes to Krenz's crimes, but I'm looking at the way of argumentation regarding the process decisions.

The german (but not only their) system of justice is often too lax, many judgements are questionable, especially if you compare serious crimes like rapes or murderers with more or less heavy thefts. [I don't get why some people are allowed to be released early, only because they behave quite well in prison. That doesn't always alleviate the seriousness of their crime! I'd have more understanding for thefts who realize that they did wrong by taking other's property and/ or causing more or less accidental Körperverletzung (=injury). But basically wrong things like killing people or ordering people's execution, rapings and the like, are in my opinion unforgiveable. Only in very rare cases these people weren't aware of their actions. I also disagree with rapists being set free ever again, especially if you talk about pedophiles.]

Last Word, Egon Krentz himself, after leaving the prison in Plötzensee: "Ich bin ein politischer Mensch, und ich komme auch als politischer Mensch wieder aus dem Gefängnis"
T: "I'm a political person, and I also come back from the prison as a political person."
If that doesn't say everything.

Posted: Fr - Dezember 19, 2003 at 11:07 Uhr      

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