Highly honored court,
We are finally nearing the end of this trial, which began in December 2018. I didn’t know that a trial could take that long.
I was arrested a few days after my 23rd birthday in August 2018, the police officers smashed the door of my parents’ house screaming. My little sister had to kneel with her hands over her head. As I heard the door burst, I had images of police violence in my head, how the police starts to arrest and beat people. I got scared and then got over the roof into the neighbors’ garden and then to the other side of the settlement. But the police had closed off the whole area and a person walking on the street in socks quickly becomes suspicious. A civil police officer started running after me and called out to me, “come here, you little shitbag”. Sensing a certain hostility in his voice, I preferred not to accept his invitation, which if I had said “shitbag” to him would have caused outrage.
So I find myself trapped in the garden and then in a neighbor’s garage. With my back to the wall, forced to wait for the police officer to arrive. The officer jumped on me and twisted my right wrist while I let him do that. I tell him that his violence is useless and he replies: “You are lucky that I did not shoot you”. From this point of view, however, I do consider myself lucky to be still alive. It is true that numerous arrests by the police have an unpleasant tendency to turn into a death penalty. But this sad outcome is rather intended for those who are residents of working-class neighborhoods exposed to racist attributions. In France, not a month goes by without deaths from arrests. The door to the garage finally opens, police officers, gendarmes, officers from the BAC & masked civil policemen appear with automatic weapons in their hands. Perhaps 30 members of the «law enforcement officers».
Continue reading
Category Archives: Lawsuits
G20-Trial “Elbchaussee-Complex”
A trial against five activists because of supposed riots on Elbchaussee
during G20 was started today in Hamburg. The trial takes place against
five activists from Frankfurt, Offenbach and France. Three adults and
two adolescents (youngsters) are beeing accused of „beeing present“ at
riosts on Elbchaussee during G20 last year in Hamburg.
For the trial, there was a bus full of relatives and solidary people
that arrived from Frankfurt. The alliance „united we stand“ set up a
spot in front of the court building on Sievekingplatz with hot drinks
and music. Speeches where held about background information on the
courtcase. The „Libertäres Zentrum“ (LiZ) nextdoor provided breakfast
and a space to warm up during the day.
Trial against NoG20 Activist – Robin`s trial is going to the second instance
The defendant Robin was convicted to a fine for supposed assault, but neither the defendant nor the prosecution was accepting the sentence.
So the defendent as well as the prosecution gave notice of appeal and the process will go into the second instance.
We will inform you on the next trial date as soon as we now it.
Trial on 20th of June canceled for now
Some days ago we posted her a solidarity call for the support of R’s NoG20 trial. the beginning of the trial against failed initially due to formal error.
This morning, o 19th of June, the planned beginning of the trial against activist R. on 20th of June 2018 was cancelled due to a formal error in the penalty order. The entire section describing the supposed criminal act was missing. This shows how the court is overstrained by the number of lawsuits they‘re trying to push through.
With the trial‘s beginning being cancelled for now, the courts strategy to blindside R. failed.
The court set a trial date very soon, ignored that the lawyer has no time at the trial date by dismissing an application to change the date, did not give real access to the court files by only allowing access in Hamburg – to a lawyer far away in Göttingen. In the end this led to having no lawyer and no clue whats in the court files four days before the trial. Luckily they did not get through with their strategy.
There will be no trial this week but they might send a new penalty order with a new trial date. If that happens the info will be published here.
Solidarity not penalty orders!
Freedom for all G20 prisoners!
Statement by Fabio V. on the trial in the district court of Hamburg-Altona on 7th of November 2017.
Judge, jurywoman, juryman, prosecutor, juvenile probation officer,
you need to judge about a man today. You described him as an ‘aggressive criminal’ and as ‘disrespectful towards human dignity’. I personally don’t care with what attributes you label me. I am just a guy with a strong will.
First of all i want to say that the ladies and gentlemen of politics, police inspectors and prosecutors probably believe they can hinder the dissent on the streets if they arrest and lock up a bunch of kids.
Likely they believe that prison is enough to hold back the rebellious voices that arise everywhere.
Likely they believe that repression will stop our thirst for freedom. Our will to create a better world.
Well, these people are mistaken.
They are wrong. History proves that as well.
As i, many young people had to live through trials like this one. Today it is Hamburg, yesterday it was Genoa and before that Seattle.
With all ‘legal’ means and ‘judicial measures for the trials’ they try to limit the voices of rebellion that arise everywhere.
In any case, however the decision of the court, it will not change our protest. Many young man and women who are driven by the same ideals will continue to go to the streets everywhere in Europe. And they will not care about the prisons that try hard to get filled with political prisoners.
But let us get to the point, judge, prosecutor, jurywoman, juryman, juvenile probation officer.
Let’s get to the point.
In relation to the matter i am accused of today, i will use my right to stay silent, as you can imagine. Continue reading
In-depth report on the tenth G20-trial of Thursday, 28 September 2017
The tenth trial against a NoG20 activist took place at the district court in Altona and ended with a conviction and a suspended sentence of one year and three months.
The trial took place in one of the smaller courtrooms. A make-shift security control point had been set up in front of the courtroom, likely in order to cast the accused as “dangerous” to the public. Members of the press were present. Photographers tried to take pictures of the accused before he was able to shield his face. A court officer interrupted them and stated that no pictures were to be taken in the courtroom. The photographer then demanded to be allowed to talk to the judge, which the court officer allowed him. After his talk with the judge, the photographer continued taking photos of the accused, including close-ups.
The indictment charges the accused with resisting officers and causing bodily harm by dangerous means according to Sections 114 and 223, 224 of the German Criminal Code for acts which he allegedly committed in the evening of the 6th of July. After the reading of the indictment the defense read out a short statement by the accused according to which he admitted his guilt and regretted his deeds. He had let himself become caught up in the aggressive atmosphere. He did not deny the political background, but stood by his decision to come to the g20 summit in order to protest peacefully. Living in Sicily, he was intimately aware of the refugee crisis, which is why he had come to Hamburg to protest peacefully against the politics of the G20. The defense counsel stated that further questions would not be answered. Both the prosecutor and the judge nonetheless posed several questions, the judge noting that, while it was the right of the accused not to say anything further, this lead to a “different impression”. Continue reading
„These Trials are as political as Trials can be.“ – Campaign Statement on the first G20-Trials on 28th and 29th of August 2017
With accusations that are very obviously politically motivated, the first Trials against supposed criminals in connection with the G20-summit in Hamburg are starting on 28th and 29th of August. The Campaign “United we stand!” calls for Manifestations in front of the Court at ‘Sievekingplatz’ on both of these days.
In the first Trial on 28th of August a young man from the Netherlands is accused at Court for heavy Trespassing, Resistance and Assault. Surprisingly thin is the evidence for this heavy accusations. There are no Videos or Pictures of the Action, just two Cops are supposed to witness the Acts. As there was such an extended Video-Documentation of the Protests against the G20-summit made by the Cops this is pretty unbelievable. Nevertheless is the dutch comrade locked up in Pre-Trial Prison since the beginning of July.
The Accused of the second Trial is a Person with polish Papers . He was detained far away from any Protests against G20 and is held in Pre-Trial Prison since beginning of July. The Accusations against him are very weak – given the construction of the prosecuter, who only assumes that the guy, who also doesn’t show a criminal record, would have later committed a crime.
‘These Trials are as political as Trials can be’ commented Kim König from the campaign ‘United we stand!’ ’The Prosecution seriously claims in front of the whole world, that someone who carries Marbles in a city where a Protest is going on somewhere, automatically is a dangerous criminal. This adventurous Accusation, but also the hindrance of the defence in the Pre-Trial Detention during the Summit as well as the violation of the Rights of the Prisoners in the Prison Billwerder proof the imperative Will of the State for persecution. The State finally wants to present convictions, no matter at what costs. For that purpose the actions of the State seem to follow some kind of criminal law for enemies: Not only the two people on Trial now but many more of those without german papers who where detained during the Summit face such disproportionate Pre-Trial Imprisonment – and almost just them.
Short report on the 3rd G20 trial on Friday, 8 September 2017
Contrary to the announcement by the Court president that all G20 trials would take place in the court building at Sievekingplatz, the trial took place at the building of the local court in Altona. Like the other trials before, it ended with a conviction and a sentence that is much too high.
The prosecution had accused the 21 year old defendant of having thrown six bottles at police officers at the Fischmarkt right after the cops had attacked the demonstration, and of having resisted arrest. After the judge had explained clearly that the defendant had the right to remain silent and that silence could not be used against him, i.e. that he should only say something if he wanted to, the defence counsel made a comprehensive statement for the accused. The accused also made a further statement of his own.
He stated that he had only come to the G20 to find a girl he had met a few days before at a festival. He had not originally been planning to demonstrate as he did not think this would solve the problems with the G20. He was wearing a white T-Shirt with writing on the back detailing who he was and whom he was looking for. When the demonstration was attacked and he saw police officers massively hitting women and men lying on the ground with their batons, he had been gripped by empathy and anger. He shouted at the officers, was peppersprayed and fled onto a slight hill. It is from there that he threw some bottles, hardly being able to see because of the pepperspray. He stated that he had wanted to get the officers to rethink what they were doing. During the last two months, which he had spent in detention, he had learned a lot about loneliness and had decided that he never wanted to subject himself or his family to this kind of hell again. He stated that he was aware that he had acted in a very dumb manner and that police officers are humans too.
The judge emphasized – contrary to the defendant – that he found it important that people demonstrate and state their opinion so that politicians cannot just do what they want. However, it would have been good if the defendant had also shown empathy for the officers who were placed there.
The prosecution felt that the acts the defendant was accused of constituted an unleashing of senseless violence, but after all it was clear to them that he had not come to Hamburg to engage in riots. They asked the court to sentence the accused to a suspended sentence of one year and six months, with a probationary period of two years.
The defence counsel did not ask for a specific sentence, but asked the court to hand out a sentence siginificantly below that asked for by the prosecution, and a probationary period of one year.
The judge sentenced the accused to a suspended sentence of one year and five months, with a probationary period of 2 years, as well as a payment of 500 € to the “police widows and orphans.” He held the accused to be “naive in a likeable manner”, someone who stood out among the others at the demonstration given his T-Shirt and his pink backpack. The judge summarized that the accused had seen injustices being committed and had reacted with injustices of his own – he, the judge, could not exclude that there had been injustices committed by the police. However, by meeting violence with violence, the accused had acted unjust. As to the count of resisting arrest, this had rather been “normal” resistance. General prevention did not call for a prison sentence.
Short report on the second G20 Trial, Tuesday 29th of August
Again another trial ends with an absurdly exaggerated judgement: 6 month prison on 2 years probation.
The defendant is accused to have been on the way to the Demonstration ‘G20 not welcome’ on Saturday 8th of July at 9:50 nearby the Trainstation Dammtor. In his backpack was Pepperspray, diving goggles and small (Eu proved, but without german seal of approval) fireworks. Also he was carrying two marbles and a lighter. With that he supposed to have violated the Laws of assembly, Weapons and Explosives.
He was controlled and detained by officers of a Alarm-unit from Hamburg, who where on a ‘alertly break’ and controlled ‘suspicious persons’. The backpack that was unusualy big for a demonstration and the dreadlocks of his companion seemed ‘weird’ to the officers.
The (polish) defendant explained detailed to this:
Actually he didn’t want to go to the Demonstration – which started 70 minutes later in a walking distance of 27 min, as the court stated. He wanted to go to the trainstation Dammtor – 3 minutes away. On the topic of the Objects he explains that he carries the pepper spray because he was travelling via hitchhiking to visit friends in Spain – this also explains the diving goggles. He also wanted to make some Firework there to celebrate with the Friends he hadn’t see for a while. The lighter he had because he is a smoker. The marbles are a memory of his family, his sister aswell as his mother are carrying these kind of marbles. He did not knew that the pepper spray and Fireworks, that are legal in Poland are not allowed in Germany.