Political violence: Attack on neo-Nazis: Defendants receive suspended sentences

The defendants had “consciously risen above the state’s monopoly on violence” and “disregarded the principle of non-violence in political debate,” said presiding judge Moritz Lehmann. The act was preceded by intensive planning. The defendants negligently caused their own injuries.

Masked attackers lurked in the hallway

The defendants, who are attributed to the left-wing scene, are said to have gone with a previously unknown person on April 18, 2024 to the home of the 24-year-old, who is a member of the small right-wing extremist party “Der III. Weg”. The man was attacked in the hallway by the masked attackers and brought to the ground.

“He pulls out a knife and stabs wildly to defend himself,” the verdict continued. The argument then moved outside the house. “It was no longer possible to clarify who used the knife against whom and when,” said the judge. According to the indictment, the 24-year-old was beaten, kicked, injured in the lower leg and hand with a knife and sprayed with irritant gas.

The defendants – a historian and a social worker – said they wanted to “scare” the 24-year-old so that they could do something about previous violence by neo-Nazis. The plan was to bring him to the ground. But he discovered her, rushed towards her with a knife and “stabbed her immediately”. They tried to get out of the house in fear of death. The injuries suffered by the 24-year-old, who trains in martial arts, “can only be explained by the fact that he injured himself in the fight.”

Witness: “National worldview”

As a witness in the trial, the 24-year-old said four to six people attacked him without warning. He assumed an attack because of his “national worldview”. When one of the people was sitting on him, he pulled a knife out of his trouser pocket and “acted on the person uncontrollably” in his defense. He himself considers it “unlikely” that he injured himself in the leg with the knife.

The defendants were also injured, some of them seriously, and were treated in hospital. They also said they had to undergo psychotherapeutic treatment to deal with the “nightmare”.

The defense lawyers demanded an acquittal or a small suspended sentence. The public prosecutor requested prison sentences of three years and two months each. The verdict is not yet final.