For 23 years, Adnan Syed has been fighting in the US against his conviction for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. The criminal case became known worldwide through the podcast “Serial”, which is also popular in Germany. The original judgment has now been overturned.
Adnan Syed, whose case was covered on the hit podcast Serial, leaves the courthouse with his attorney Erica Suter after a judge overturned Syed’s 2000 murder conviction and ordered a new trial.
(dpa)
In the case of the American Adnan Syed, who was convicted of murder and became known worldwide through the podcast “Serial”, there has been a remarkable turn of events. A court in the state of Maryland overturned the verdict against the 41-year-old on Monday, as American media reported unanimously. Last week, prosecutors requested a new trial for Syed, who was sentenced to life in prison as a teenager for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. According to the American media, the court has now announced that the earlier conviction had been overturned “in the interest of fairness and justice”.
With the court’s decision, Syed will now be released from prison and initially placed under house arrest. Now the public prosecutor’s office has to decide whether to initiate a new trial or drop the charges. She previously said that a nearly year-long investigation had uncovered previously unknown information about two other suspects and doubts about the reliability of cell tower data. There is “no confidence in the integrity of the conviction”.
Syed was sentenced to life in prison for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend when he was 17. His ex-girlfriend, high school student Hae Min Lee, was last seen alive in January 1999 in the state of Maryland. Her body was found in a park a month later. Lee’s former partner and classmate Syed was convicted mainly because of the incriminating statements of an acquaintance.
In the podcast “Serial”, his case was examined in several episodes in 2014. The case was finally reopened legally and went through the instances – however, Syed was ultimately denied a retrial. He himself always denied the crime. The episodes of the first season of “Serial” were heard by millions of people, and the documentary by American journalist Sarah Koenig was also very successful in Germany.