German court finds four leftists guilty of attacks on neo-Nazis

On Wednesday, a German court convicted a 28-year-old woman and three of her accomplices of organizing and carrying out brutal attacks against people they considered neo-Nazis. a country

The woman, identified only as Lina E under Germany’s strict privacy laws, was sentenced by a court in Dresden in eastern Germany to five years and three months in prison for membership in a criminal association, multiple counts of assault, damaging property and other smaller expenses.

Three other members of the group – Lennart A., 28 years old; Yannis R., 37; and Philip M., aged 28, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two years and five months to three years and two months on charges including membership or support of a criminal group, assault and incitement to attack.

Nancy Feiser, the country’s home secretary, said in a statement following the verdict that “there should be no place for lynching in a democratic rule of law state.” She added: “No goal justifies political violence.”

Judge Hans Schlüter-Staats announced that Lina E. will be released from prison until possible appeals are heard and she will have to start serving her prison sentence. Supporters in the courtroom, who protested so loudly when the original verdict was announced that the judge adjourned for a 15-minute recess, rejoiced that she would be free for a while. During the trial, the three defendants were not in custody.

Hours after the verdict was announced, there were clashes, some of them violent, between left-wing protesters and police in Berlin; Leipzigwhere Lina E. lived; and other cities. Far-left activists also announced that there would be demonstrations in Leipzig on Saturday.

The case is being followed in Germany, where authorities have long been accused of failing to prosecute or being slow to prosecute figures linked to right-wing attacks, and especially in the east of the country, where the dominance of far-right groups has long eclipsed a small and apparently also a violent far-left scene. The lawsuit also made progressives think about how far the fight against right-wing extremism should go, experts say.

The case is based on six attacks that prosecutors say were planned and carried out by an unnamed group from 2018 to 2020. Among those beaten by the masked attackers was a right-wing extremist and martial arts fighter who himself is in prison. awaiting trial for his role at the head of a violent right-wing group; men returning from a far-right rally in Dresden; and a man wearing a hat from a right-wing clothing company who later denied being a neo-Nazi.

Some of the victims ended up in the hospital with broken bones. One revealed that he was traumatized for life. According to prosecutors, a total of 13 victims are known.

The prosecutor’s office stated that Lina E. led the group with her partner, who is still on the wanted list.

Investigators located Lina E., then a student, following a second attack on an extremist martial arts fighter in 2019. After the attack, police stopped a speeding VW Golf with stolen license plates; original license plates were found inside, indicating that it was registered to Lina E’s mother. From there, the police connected Lina E to other attacks through eyewitness testimony, video, DNA evidence, and a crime scene photo found on a camera in her home .

She was arrested in November 2020 at her home in Leipzig, in the state of Saxony in northeastern Germany, and charged with causing bodily harm and organizing a criminal gang.

The case has attracted public attention ever since she stepped off a police helicopter, flanked by heavily armed police officers, to face charges in Karlsruhe, the seat of Germany’s national prosecutor’s office. Some vilified her as a cruel criminal, while others glorified her as a vigilante. “Free Lina E.” graffiti appeared in one of the districts of Leipzig. Some stores put up collection boxes to help her with defense costs.

Hajo Funke, an expert on the far right, said the violence blamed on the left group was unusual in eastern Germany, where the far right tended to be the source of violence in public places.

“Especially in Saxony, but also in other states in the east, the extreme right tactically dominates the left and even democratic citizens in everyday situations,” he said. Funke said. “If you’re actively doing something they don’t like, you’re really in danger.”

In 2022, German police attributed 23,493 reported crimes to the far right in the country. In the same year, 6,976 crimes were attributed to the far left, the lowest in a decade.

Because of its Nazi past, Germany has strict anti-fascism laws that ban Nazi symbols and speech. Shortly after the reunification of the country three decades ago, neo-Nazis unleashed a wave of violence on migrants, targeting centers of refuge, especially in the east. While the violence waned, the political fortunes of the right rose. Last year, a far-right group was accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government.

A parliamentary committee report published in 2013 stated that the German police and security services deep-seated prejudice this allowed the neo-Nazi cell to carry out violent attacks – murders, robberies and bombings – against immigrants for more than a decade without being detected.

The trial of Lina E. and her group took place under strict security conditions for almost 100 days. The main witness of the prosecutor’s office was a kindergarten teacher and a former associate of the group, Johannes D., aged 30, who testified about the training and organization of the group, and also admitted, that he was present during at least one attack as an observation. (The court sentenced him to a suspended sentence for his involvement in the crime.)

Last day of judgment this month, Lina. E. did not maintain her innocence or explain her motives, but thanked her family and those who wrote to her and visited her in prison.

Even amid calls for protest, Alexander Dijke, who studies the far left at the University of Göttingen, said that within the leftist community, the verdict could lead to a soul-searching. “It’s a fundamental contradiction when you want a society free from violence and domination on the one hand, but you don’t want to eliminate violence along the way,” he said.

Dirk Munster, a police officer who heads the state’s special unit on far-left crimes and oversees the Lina E. group’s investigation, said a clear conviction was important.

“It has a signaling effect,” he said before sentencing. “We have to admit that we have a real problem, not one that can be discussed.”

According to him, many Germans refused to see left-wing violence as a problem because they were generally sympathetic to the fight against fascism. “We are not fighting leftist beliefs,” he said. “We are working against actual criminal violence.”