A Styrian man was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2019 for trying to kill a police officer with a screwdriver. Now the 43-year-old is dead. He suffocated in his cell in Karlau prison on smoke from a fire he apparently started himself.
It was his privately purchased protective vest that saved the life of a young police officer in December 2018. A then 38-year-old Styrian stabbed the 28-year-old twice with a screwdriver. The police were called because the known violent perpetrator had rioted in a stairwell in Graz.
“Without the protective vest, there would undoubtedly have been life-threatening injuries,” the forensic pathologist stressed during the trial for attempted murder in the summer of 2019 at the Graz Regional Criminal Court.
The prisoner called for help over the intercom
The man was sentenced to twelve years. Now he is dead. The 43-year-old suffocated on Monday from smoke fumes in his cell block wing of Karlau prison and also suffered severe burns. He probably started the fire himself, but not for the first time.
Major fire incident
The Styrian had raised the alarm himself around 4:00 a.m., apparently he didn’t want to die after all. “Unfortunately, resuscitation was not successful until the detention room was finally opened,” says the head of the Graz-Karlau prison, Gerhard Derler. Due to the massive fire, the investigators of the State Criminal Investigation Department rule out negligence – such as a burning cigarette – as well as a technical defect or negligence by third parties.
Second violent criminal killed in just a few weeks
It was not until early July that a prisoner died in Karlau prison: the 25-year-old, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in December 2023 by the Leoben Regional Court for the murder of his ex-girlfriend (22), died from drug or drug addiction.
Source: Krone
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