Overview

• The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig is hearing whether a Spanish murder conviction can count as a service offense that permits revoking a retired civil servant’s pension.
• The Federal Employment Agency brought the disciplinary case after the man from Saxony-Anhalt received a life sentence in Spain for killing his estranged wife and ten-year-old son in 2019.
• Two lower German administrative courts rejected the agency’s claim, with the Higher Administrative Court in Magdeburg finding a privately motivated, non-political crime does not breach the limited duties of a retiree.
• A decision is expected today, potentially clarifying how foreign criminal judgments interact with German disciplinary and pension law for former officials.
• According to the Spanish court, the younger son escaped after the family was led to a remote cave on Tenerife, a case widely referred to in German media as the ‘cave murderer’ case.