Impact of mandatory preventive detention on criminal sentencing: no per se requirement to treat as mitigating factor

The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) 1st Criminal Senate dismissed the defendant's appeal as unfounded, thereby upholding the Landgericht Augsburg judgment of April 18, 2023, and ordering the defendant to bear the costs of the appellate proceedings and the necessary expenses of the counterparty. The dispute concerned a criminal sentencing where the defendant challenged the interplay between the imposed刑罚 and the mandatory order of preventive detention (Sicherungsverwahrung) under § 66 StGB. In a supplementary remark, the Senate clarified its legal doctrine, stating that while preventive detention may influence sentencing, it is not invariably treated as a decisive mitigating factor requiring mandatory discussion; rather, its impact on the sentence depends on the specific circumstances of the individual case, correcting any prior interpretation that suggested a rigid rule.