An Afghan man sentenced to seven years in a German prison for alleged rape and battery has been released from custody after a judge at a Berlin court failed to write a trial protocol in time.
As local newspaper Tagesspiegel reports today, 27-year-old Mahmood D allegedly abused, raped and tortured his wife repeatedly between 2022 and 2024 and threatened to kill her.
In May 2024 the Berlin police apprehended him and he was held awaiting trial.
That started in November 2024 at the Berlin Regional Court and lasted until June 2025. Mahmood D remained in jail for the entire duration of the trial because the court saw a risk of his absconding.
In June 2025, the court handed down a prison sentence of seven years and nine months – indicating the severity of the Afghan man’s alleged crimes.
The presiding judge, though, failed to write down the judgment in time. Generally, the written judgment needs to be submitted to the lawyers of the defendant within four months of the verbal announcement of it in court.
The reasons for this delay are unclear. According to reporting by Tagesspiegel, the judge in question is accused of substance-abuse problems and has been on sick leave since December.
The failure to provide the written judgment meant the verdict was never legally delivered to the defendant.
After the four-month deadline expire, Mahmood D’s lawyer filed a complaint against the arrest warrant for his client.
The Berlin High Court upheld the complaint, saying that despite the severity of the alleged crimes there were no especially important reasons to keep the man in jail in light of the procedural delays.
In January 2026, Mahmood D was released from custody. His lawyers have reportedly appealed the prison sentence handed down by the Regional Court.
The former wife of the Afghan man is now under police protection as Mahmood D has allegedly repeatedly threatened to kill her before he was taken into custody.
