“Germany has an anti-Semitism and racism problem. That is a fact we cannot ignore any longer.” Your Honour,Dear co-plaintiffs,Ladies and gentlemen, I should like to start by briefly looking back: Over the past five months since the trial began, I have repeatedly received messages on social media. Initially and throughout the summer, those messages trivialised […]
“Who of the people I grew up with might also be capable of such a crime?” I decided to become a co-plaintiff because I wanted to understand how something like this could happen. I wanted to understand how an average country kid could become a hate-fuelled murderer. When I testified as a witness the judge […]
“Sitting in this courtroom, I am constantly reminded that the law is not justice.” We have now heard the final statement of the Attorney General and of many lawyers representing co-plaintiffs from the Kiez-Döner shop, from Wiedersdorf, Kai’s Garage, from those targeted and run-over on the street, from the synagogue. We are all here to […]
On December 9, 2020, the 25th day of the Halle trial, the defense of the accused gave its closing statement. Following antisemitic and criminal statements in the accused’s final speech, the presiding judge ended it after a few minutes. Hans-Dieter Weber, one of the two defense attorneys for the accused, said that his client had […]
On November 18, 2020 the 21st day of the trial against the confessed attacker of Halle took place in Magdeburg. As the last witness of the trial, the sociologist Matthias Quent was heard as an expert witness. He testified about the ideological motives behind the act and contextualized it in the history of right-wing extremism […]
On 17 November 2020, on the 20th day of the Halle trial, Benjamin Steinitz, Managing Director of the Association of Antisemitism Research and Information Centers (RIAS), testified as an expert on the effects of the Halle attack on Jewish life in Germany. In addition, the expert Professor Leygraf completed his psychiatric report, in which he […]
On 4 November 2020, the 19th day of the Halle trial, expert witness Karolin Schwarz and Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) official Sebastian E. testified regarding the public perception of the attack and the online distribution of the video of the crime as well as the files found on the accused’s laptop and data storage […]
Several tens of thousands of people took part in the nationalist Independence Day march in Warsaw on 11.11.2020. Participants repeatedly attacked police officers and threw pyrotechnics at apartment buildings with rainbow flags or symbols of the women’s strike movement. One apartment was set on fire to the cheers of some participants. One participant shouted, for […]
On 3 November 2020, the 18th day of the Halle trial, three experts and a survivor from the synagogue testified. The joint-plaintiff, once again, criticized the police’s handling of the attack. The attacker of Halle was angered by a psychiatrist who stated that he had a personality disorder and found him guilty. Once again, the […]
On the 17th day of the trial, several law enforcement officials testified about the attacker’s time in prison. BKA officials (Bundeskriminialamt, German State Police) were also heard on the finance inquiries, the pre-crime phase and the evaluation of the music played by the attacker during the crime. The joint plaintiff’s attorneys again clearly criticized the […]