Suspect still on the run after homicide in Basel
Published: Friday, Aug 9th 2024, 15:10
Back to Live Feed
The suspect in Thursday's homicide in Basel is still on the run. The authorities ordered a manhunt on Friday. The suspect is a 32-year-old man who already killed two women in the same neighborhood in 2014 and was therefore in the University Psychiatric Clinics in Basel.
The man had left the clinic before committing the crime. He is considered dangerous, according to a statement from the public prosecutor's office on Friday. They advised not to approach the suspect, but to report any observations immediately.
On Thursday, a 75-year-old woman was killed in an apartment building on Nasenweg in Basel's Breite district. The police cordoned off the area around the crime scene.
The suspect is a repeat offender. The man, who suffers from schizophrenia, stabbed two women and seriously injured an elderly man with a knife in the same neighborhood on November 3, 2014. He was arrested at the scene of the crime. The man had been suffering from a severe mental illness for years before the first crime, but had refused inpatient treatment.
At the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency, the Basel public prosecutor's office confirmed that the suspect is the same perpetrator who killed two women in the same neighborhood ten years ago. The "Basler Zeitung" had previously reported on this.
UPK does not wish to comment
In September 2015, the criminal court in Basel ordered inpatient psychiatric treatment for the mentally ill man. It found that the mentally incompetent offender had committed multiple murders and attempted murder. The psychiatric report stated at the time that without treatment, the risk of recidivism for serious offenses is high.
As the Basel newspaper "bz Basel" wrote, the inpatient measure was extended by a further five years in 2020. However, the man is said to have been granted several relaxations since 2017, such as supervised release.
According to the "Basler Zeitung" newspaper, the suspect is said to have been on unaccompanied release on Thursday. The University Psychiatric Clinics Basel did not wish to comment on this when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency. "At the moment we cannot provide any information and are referring to the public search", said CEO Michael Rolaz.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic