In the sensational case of a German couple in eastern France, the judiciary considers the allegations of deprivation of liberty, torture and rape to be questionable. Saargemünd prosecutor Olivier Glady said there was no evidence to back up the woman’s serious allegations against her husband.
The 55-year-old arrested German should be released from police custody today. There is no evidence that the man will be prosecuted.
Prosecutor: No traces of torture
Initially, investigations into possible rape, deprivation of liberty and torture were started. Glady now rated the accusation of deprivation of liberty as a “nonexistent reality”. There are no traces of rape, and the allegation of torture could not be substantiated by any knowledge gained.
French police officers arrested the man in Forbach, near Saarland, on Monday morning. According to Glady, his 53-year-old wife, also German, had previously called the German security forces. She said she had been held captive and abused by her husband since 2011. Why did the woman call Wiesbaden of all places and not neighboring Saarland? She saw the police phone number on a TV show and remembered it, Glady said.
Instead of a criminal horror, the case seems to reveal much more social desperation, the prosecutor summed up. In the long questioning, the woman repeated her allegations. Her husband, on the other hand, spoke of an illness that his wife had been suffering from for a long time. She denied being sick. “But at this point in time, and especially considering the forensic findings, your own assessment of the situation may not be the most accurate.”
It is unclear which disease the woman is said to be suffering from
It was not immediately clear which disease the woman was suffering from. The couple couldn’t give a clear diagnosis either, Glady said. There was no medical care whatsoever. The man had said that the two had not turned to French doctors because they did not speak French. They are also not insured in France and have thought about medical costs.
The couple has been married since 2001 and has lived in France for years. The man initially worked there for a German company. When the company moved, he lost his job and received unemployment benefits from France. He has no contact with his family in Germany. The woman is also not in contact with her parents and sister living in Spain.
The man stated in his interrogation that the German had been caring for his wife since the symptoms began to appear. Her condition worsened about ten months ago. She hasn’t been able to walk since then. According to prosecutor Glady, the man suspects that his wife blames him for her suffering and for this reason raised the serious allegations against him. The woman was still in the hospital in the evening. The results of a psychological investigation were pending.
