[ad_1]
A former nurse accused of killing more than 100 patients in his care was tried in the largest mass murder trial in German post-war history.
Niels Hoegel, 41, has already spent nearly 10 years in prison after being convicted of the deaths of other patients. He is accused of intentionally overdosing victims to bring them back to life at the last moment.
He will face an interrogation in front of dozens of relatives of the anguished victims who hope to know the extent of his crimes.
The trial in Oldenburg, in northern Germany, is expected to last at least until May, with the first hearing scheduled for prosecutors.
Hoegel, who is already serving a life sentence, has confessed to dozens of murders.
Investigators said at least 36 patients had been killed in an Oldenburg hospital where he was working and about 64 others at a clinic in the nearby town of Delmenhorst between 2000 and 2005.
"I hope that he will be convicted of every charge so that loved ones can finally find a solution," said Petra Klein, who heads the local aid group. Weisser Ring victims.
About 126 family members will be co-plaintiffs in the new trial and should fill the specially designated hearing room in Oldenburg, with about 80 journalists.
More than 130 bodies of patients who died under Hoegel's supervision were exhumed in a file that investigators described as "unprecedented" in Germany.
Taken in 2005 when he was injecting a non-prescription drug to a Delmenhorst patient, Hoegel was sentenced in 2008 to seven years in prison for attempted murder. A second trial followed in 2014-2015 under pressure from families of alleged victims, who accused prosecutors of dragging their feet.
He was convicted of the murder and attempted murder of five other victims and sentenced to a maximum of 15 years.
It was then that Hoegel announced to his psychiatrist that he had committed at least 30 other murders in Delmenhorst. This prompted the investigators to take a closer look at the suspicious deaths in Oldenburg.
Investigators say the final toll could reach 200, but fear that they'll never know it because the bodies of many potential victims have been cremated.
Hoegel seems to have followed a similar procedure each time, starting with the injection of a drug that triggered a cardiac arrest, and then with an often futile attempt at resuscitation. Prosecutors say that he was motivated by vanity, by his talents to save human lives and by mere "boredom".
The choice of the victim seems to have been chosen at random, their age ranging from 34 to 96 years.
Murder itself was never his goal, according to a psychologist who evaluated it. When he managed to revive a patient, he was satiated, but only a few days, said the expert, before adding: "For him, it was like a drug. "
