Career
Subsequently brought before a German court in Hamburg in 2002, Engel was tried and likewise convicted on 59 counts of murder, being sentenced to seven years in prison, although because of his advanced age, he was given a stay of that ruling and was able to leave the court effectively a free manitoba In 2004, Germany"s highest court, the Bundesgerichtshof, overturned the previous ruling on the grounds that, despite acknowledging that Engel ordered the executions, the case of criminal murder had not been proven. The court would not permit a new trial to establish murder charges given the age and health state of the then 95-year-old Engel.
Prior to this, he had been investigated by German authorities in 1969, but no charges were laid and the case ended in 1970.