Two women from Berlin were stabbed to death by their former partners last week, and a third woman was only just saved from her brutal ex. Now the debate about femicides is becoming more concrete. “Along with other institutions, the judiciary has a responsibility to protect the victims,” Berlin’s Justice Senator Felor Badenberg (CDU) told the Tagesspiegel on Friday. “This includes preventive measures such as electronic ankle bracelet. I will work to ensure that ankle bracelets are introduced in Berlin. Because that is also possible at the state level.”
Badenberg justified the move by saying that it would probably take too long for the ankle bracelet to be included in the federal violence protection law. The senator had called on the Federal Minister of Justice to do just that last week: Marco Buschmann (FDP) had said that he was open to it, and that a federal-state working group was clarifying the options under federal law.
According to the Berlin Justice Administration, it is possible to regulate the use of ankle bracelets in the General Law for the Protection of Public Safety and Order. The law, often referred to simply as “Asog”, stipulates all kinds of powers of the Berlin police. In some other federal states – including Brandenburg – the use of ankle bracelets for abusive ex-partners is already possible. The Berlin Left Party has described the move as “symbolic politics”.
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An electronic ankle bracelet transmits the location of a person convicted of such a crime via radio. If the person then approaches the home or workplace of his former victim despite a contact ban, the police are alerted. In addition – and this is the core of the current proposal – the potential victim could be warned via a receiver or cell phone before the police reach the location. This could also potentially provide evidence through these electronic data. This could be used for criminal prosecution and in any court cases. However, lawyers still have to evaluate this.
Social Senator Cansel Kiziltepe (SPD) also believes that Berlin must do more to protect women from violence. She has therefore written a letter to the Federal Minister for Women, Lisa Paus (Greens), to the Federal Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner (FDP), and to the Federal Chancellor, Olaf Scholz (SPD). said Kiziltepe on Thursday.
The current debate was triggered by the fatal attack on a 36-year-old in ZehlendorfA 50-year-old man attacked his ex-wife with an “unusually high number of stab wounds,” as an investigator told the Tagesspiegel. She bled to death despite rescue efforts and emergency surgery at the nearby Charité hospital.
The Lebanese couple had separated some time ago. The 36-year-old mother of four even won a restraining order against her ex in court. The man should have kept his distance, but was lying in wait for the woman in front of her house. An electronic signal could have successfully warned the victim. The 50-year-old is in custody.
