German synagogue shooter and neo-nazi Stephan Balliet has attempted to break out of prison by trying to scale a fence.
The 28-year-old attempted the prison escape on Saturday afternoon at the prison in Halle where he is currently an inmate.
The incident took place in the prison courtyard, known as the “cage” which is emptied of all other prisoners when Balliet is allowed outside for his daily exercise. He is said to have fled the cage and climbed onto a windowsill before scaling a ten-foot-high fence, but was stopped by an outer wall, Bild reports.
“After climbing over the fence of a free-time courtyard inside the Halle prison at around 1:50 pm, he moved for about five minutes unsupervised inside the institution,” Detlef Thiel, spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, said.
“We are currently clarifying why, contrary to the strict instructions, he was left without supervision in the courtyard. We are in the process of getting a complete picture of the situation,” Thiel added.
Balliet has been an inmate of the Halle prison since October of 2019, shortly after he was arrested after attempting to break into a Halle synagogue on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. After being unable to enter the building, he went on to shoot and kill two people, one on the street and the other in a kebab shop.
The then-27-year-old live-streamed the entire incident on the social media platform Twitch, which showed him attempting to use improvised explosives to break into the synagogue and using homemade firearms to shoot at his victims and the police.
Balliet’s father later revealed that his son had been a member of the German armed forces and that the terrorist was constantly verbally argumentative. “There was always a fight. My opinion did not count. I could not get to him,” he said.
Balliet is due to face trial next month with the first hearings taking place on July 21st at Naumburg Higher Regional Court.
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