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A figure of Justitia, the Roman goddess of justice, hangs above the entrance to the Chemnitz Regional Court. © Jan Woitas/dpa
In late summer 2018, Chemnitz was in the international headlines because of racist riots. But a trial involving attacks on counter-demonstrators at a right-wing “funeral march” has now been temporarily discontinued. A group from Hesse was also affected.
Chemnitz – It took the judiciary more than five years to process attacks on participants in a “Heart instead of agitation” demonstration in Chemnitz in court. But now the regional court has discontinued the proceedings against the remaining three defendants. They each have to pay 1,000 euros, a court spokeswoman said on request on Friday. A group of Social Democrats and SPD sympathizers who had traveled from Hesse were also attacked at the time. Victims’ associations spoke of a scandal.
“The attitudes dramatically show how the constitutional state is failing those affected by right-wing violence in Saxony,” said Heike Kleffner from the Association of Advice Centers for Those Affected by Right-Wing, Racist and Anti-Semitic Violence to the German Press Agency.
The Chemnitz regional court said the procedure was suggested by the public prosecutor’s office. The men from Lower Saxony and Saxony had previously made a statement through their lawyers. “The defendants agreed to this procedure for reasons of opportunity,” emphasized lawyer Martin Voß, who represented one of the defendants. However, this should not be viewed as a confession.
The process got off to a slow start in December. Of the original nine defendants, six remained and two did not appear at the hearing, including a well-known neo-Nazi blogger from Dortmund. Their proceedings were separated. The case against another man was later temporarily discontinued, so that ultimately only three men were being tried.
The case goes back to late summer 2018. After the violent death of a German in a dispute with asylum seekers, there were demonstrations and riots in Chemnitz, with right-wing extremists traveling from all over Germany. This was also the case with a so-called funeral march by AfD, Pegida and Pro Chemnitz.
At the start of the trial, the public prosecutor’s office accused the men of then marching through the city in a group of more than 30 participants in order to intimidate counter-demonstrators. They surrounded opponents and hit them in the face with their fists. The attackers are said to have shouted “Adolf Hitler our leader”, “traitor to Germany” and “fucking ticks”. A man they identified as a migrant was followed through a park.
The charges were for breach of the peace and grievous bodily harm in eleven cases. Negotiations were actually scheduled to last until the end of January. It was the first of three proceedings pending at the regional court regarding the attacks on September 1, 2018.
Those affected would have had to relive and replay the threatening scenes in court, explained Anna Schramm from the RAA Sachsen’s support advice center. In contrast, the perpetrators remained unconvicted “after a few emotionless lines,” she criticized. “This is a slap in the face to those affected.”
“The previous settings are a free pass for the right-wing mob that attacked people in Chemnitz on September 1, 2018,” explained co-plaintiff Kati Lang. The promise of consistent action and effective prosecution of right-wing acts of violence has once again come to nothing. Her colleague Onur Özata spoke of “sloppy investigations and apathetic judges”. “It is, especially these days, a fatal signal to those affected by right-wing violence that the executors of racist expulsion fantasies are going completely unpunished.” dpa
2024-01-19 17:48:01
#Trial #surrounding #attacks #Chemnitz #discontinued
