A health worker appeared in court in the German city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, on charges of killing nine patients by overdose, DPA reported.
The 44-year-old man, who held the position of "medical brother", has been charged with nine counts of murder and 34 counts of attempted murder. The crimes are alleged to have been committed at a hospital in Würselen, North Rhine-Westphalia, between December 2023 and May 2024.
The indictment states that the health worker injected a total of 26 patients in the palliative care unit with tranquilizers, sometimes in combination with painkillers, and sometimes repeatedly. Nine people died as a result of these actions.
On the first day of the trial at the Aachen District Court, prosecutor Marius Saalmann said that the defendant had sought to become a "master of life and death" because he wanted to minimize his workload at work. He also accused the man of developing "a sense of superiority" in his work at the hospital and of "denying the patients' right to life". "He felt irritated and disturbed by the terminally ill patients and their needs", the prosecutor claimed. "For him, they were in the palliative care unit only to die", he added.
The investigation into the case was launched after irregularities were discovered at the hospital. Five bodies have been exhumed for autopsy so far, a spokeswoman for the Aachen prosecutor's office said. Prosecutors are investigating whether there are other related cases from the man's previous work as a nurse in the city of Cologne.
The trial is scheduled for June, with dozens of witnesses expected to testify, including the nurse's former colleagues and supervisors, as well as medical experts. Several relatives of the victims are co-plaintiffs in the case.