There is said to have been a group brawl in the Heidering prison – which had to be ended by a double-digit number of officials. The argument took place on Monday, and the CDU drew attention to the incident on Tuesday.
Justice Senator Lena Kreck (left) admitted after a meeting of the state government on Tuesday that there had been a violent conflict in the prison, but there could be no question of “mutiny”.
The judicial expert of the CDU in the Berlin House of Representatives, Alexander Herrmann, previously reported that 40 prisoners had “solidarized against the enforcement forces in a violent confrontation with the ringleaders”, so they ultimately advanced together against three officers in the courtyard of the prison. Herrmann announced that the incident in Heidering also wanted to be clarified via Parliament.
Brawls between prisoners are common, but a mutiny of this magnitude would be unusual. Section 121 of the Penal Code threatens prisoner mutiny with up to five years in prison. The CDU sees a “serious incident”, even if there may have been no injuries, as the Senate Justice Department assured.
According to information from the Tagesspiegel, prisoners who are classified as “gang criminals” by investigators are said to have been involved in the brawl. Whether that is why so many prisoners showed solidarity with the first offenders – even verbally – because extended families were involved in the incident is now being determined internally.
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The JVA Heidering is a prison of the state of Berlin, but is located in Großbeeren in Brandenburg. Again and again there are arguments in the free hours on the farm. There had only been a riot there at Easter, involving 50 prisoners, including men from well-known clans. A judicial officer was also injured at the time. Clan men had also tried to bribe officials in Heidering.
The number of acts of violence between prisoners in Berlin prisons is increasing, at least the registered cases have increased in the last three years: from around 90 in 2019 to almost 140 in 2021. Attacks on officials are much rarer.
