2024-09-04 00:46:31
The Halle attacker, Stephan Balliet, is considered one of the most dangerous criminals in the country. He has now been brought to North Rhine-Westphalia under high security precautions.
The Halle attacker has been transferred from a prison in Thuringia to North Rhine-Westphalia. As a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice in Saxony-Anhalt confirmed in response to a request from the German Press Agency (dpa), a prisoner was transferred by helicopter this morning. According to information from the dpa, this is Stephan Balliet, known as the Halle attacker, who was taken to a high-security prison in North Rhine-Westphalia by special forces from the Saxony-Anhalt prison system.
Some prisoners, such as Balliet, who are considered particularly dangerous, are routinely transferred repeatedly, partly to prevent them from becoming accustomed to procedures. Balliet is guarded under the highest security precautions and is considered to be unable and unwilling to receive treatment. He was most recently held in the prison in Tonna (Gotha district) in Thuringia.
In 2020, he was sentenced to life imprisonment followed by preventive detention for the racist and anti-Semitic attack near the synagogue in Halle in southern Saxony-Anhalt. On October 9, 2019, the most important Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, he tried to storm the synagogue in Halle and carry out a massacre. When he failed, he murdered two people near the synagogue.
In February of this year, Balliet was also sentenced to seven years in prison for taking hostages in the prison in Burg in Saxony-Anhalt. He had stated that he wanted to escape from prison.
After the crime in Burg in December 2022, Balliet was held in various prisons. Shortly after the hostage-taking, he was flown out to Augsburg in Bavaria and transferred to Wolfenbüttel Prison (Lower Saxony) in June 2023. Before the start of the trial for hostage-taking, he was held in Raßnitz Youth Prison in Saxony-Anhalt. After the verdict, Balliet was then transferred to Tonna.