User:Hans Adler/Gustl Mollath affair
The Gustl Mollath affair is a German judicial scandal and miscarriage of justice at the expence of Gustl Mollath, who was locked up in involuntary treatment from 2006 till 2013. During his detention, Mollath found a group of supporters, who effected extensive reporting throughout the German media. Mollath obtained his liberty when prominent German defence lawyer Gerhard Strate, acting pro bono, managed to get his case re-opened in 2013. Mollath was acquitted at retrial in 2014. Since then, he has been fighting for a higher restitution and against a finding of violence against his ex-wife.
From 2011 till 2014, Gustl Mollath's case was the subject of numerous in-depth newspaper and television reports as well as three books. Among a small number of simultaneous scandals around around psychiatric expert witness statements, the Mollath affair and the Hessian tax investigator affair received the most attention.
A committee formed in 2014 explored options to improve Germany's laws on involuntary commitment. Its recommendations led to reforms in 2016. Indefinite commitment is now restricted to more serious cases than before, low-risk persons are placed in ordinary rather than forensic closed psychiatric stations, and the interval for expert reports on the necessity of continued commitment was reduced from 5 years to 3 years.
Supporters
In 2011, Georg Slobodzian created a website for a circle of Mollath supporters. Among other content, the website contained a detailed chronology and numerous documents in PDF format.
Author and retired public prosecutor Gabriele Wolff started covering the Mollath affair in great depth in December 2012. She stressed the angle of a 'tough' wife getting rid of a 'soft' husband by having him pathologised.
The campaign for the release of Gustl Mollath gained the support of some leading experts in the fields of law and of mental health.
Media coverage before 2014
Media coverage before 2014 mostly attempted to support Mollath's fight for a release. Investigative journalism on this topic began with Report Mainz, an investigative politics format of German public broadcaster ARD. It continued with the local daily newspaper Nürnberger Nachrichten and the nationwide newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Report Mainz
Nürnberger Nachrichten
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Neues aus der Anstalt
In June 2013, German political satirist Frank-Markus Barwasser, playing his alter ego Erwin Pelzig, explained the intricacies of the Mollath case to a wide audience. He stressed possible political dimensions and the countless surprising relations between supposedly unrelated actors.
Books
State failure on the highest level: What must change after the Mollath case
This book is a collection of articles written by journalists, lawyers and psychiatrists who supported Mollath. It appeared in 2013, before the retrial.
Mollath: Justice or death
In this self-published book, journalist and psychotherapist Gerald Mackenthun argues that Gustl Mollath is a regular criminal and mentally ill man who can only be embarrassed by a retrial. The book appeared in 2014, shortly before the retrial.
Obsolete and self-published; at most worth a short mention.
The Mollath affair: The man who knew too much
This book was written by journalists Uwe Ritzer and Olaf Przybilla, who had previously received a journalistic prize for their investigative series of articles in Süddeutsche Zeitung. It appeared in 2014, shortly after Mollath's acquittal.
The Mollath case: On the failure of justice and psychiatry
This book by Mollath's pro-bono defence lawyer [Gerhard Strate] appeared in early 2015.