German doctor goes on trial for 15 murders
BERLIN (AFP)A German doctor went on trial Monday accused of killing 15 patients with lethal injections and acting as "master of life and death" over those in his care.The 40-year-old palliative care specialist, named by German media as Johannes M., is alleged to have killed 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024 while working in Berlin.The doctor is accused of injecting the victims, aged between 25 and 94, with deadly cocktails of sedatives, and in some cases setting fire to their homes in a bid to cover up his crimes.The accused had "visited his patients under the pretext of providing medical care", prosecutor Philipp Meyhoefer said at the opening of the trial at the state court in Berlin.A co-worker first raised the alarm over Johannes M. last July after becoming suspicious that so many of his patients had died in fires, according to Die Zeit newspaper.He was arrested in August, with prosecutors initially linking him to four deaths. But subsequent investigations uncovered a host of other suspicious cases, and in April prosecutors charged Johannes M. with 15 counts of murder.The suspect reportedly trained as a radiologist and a general practitioner before going on to specialise in palliative care.
Prosecutors said he had "no motive beyond killing" and are seeking a life sentence.
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