37th day of trial against the 6 accused anti-fascists in the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court

Since the witness initially drove to the wrong courthouse, the day of the trial begins with explanations: Emmi's defense begins. She is reacting to the Federal Prosecutor's Office's rejection of her request for evidence to determine the height of the attacked Thor-Steinar saleswoman in Erfurt. The Federal Prosecutor's Office had declared the evidence to be meaningless. The defense sees it differently: A confirmed height would lead to Emmi being excluded as the perpetrator. Your measured height is already more than four centimeters higher than the value determined for the attacking person in the video. A comparison with the seller would confirm this. While the GBA relies heavily on Labudde's methodologically controversial report, it argues here that the method is not very meaningful anyway, since body height is influenced by body position. The fact that Labudde, among other things, was unable to model possible spinal curvatures is generously ignored.

Emmi's defense then makes a statement about last week's interrogations. A cop and a witness there had confirmed earlier statements about the attack on Beuthe and Raßbach.

Shortly after the crime, the witness described individual attacking people in detail in keeping with the video of the crime. Your statements back then seem to be reliable. However, in essential points they contradict the statement of witness G., on which the Federal Prosecutor's Office relies in its presentation and identification. The defense therefore requested that the police officer, who had questioned another witness S., also be summoned. Their description, which has been constant over the years, also contradicts G.'s account, especially when it comes to the position of the individual attackers.

This is followed by a request for evidence from Moritz's defense: Christian Klos, an employee in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, should be called as a witness. Last month, Klos took part as a German representative in the “Anti-Antifa Summit”, a meeting in the USA on left-wing extremist violence and Antifa, which is classified as a terrorist organization there. In preparation, he had, among other things, read documents from these proceedings. He had also offered to organize an international follow-up event this fall for further cooperation in the prosecution of left-wing extremist violence in Germany.

This is remarkable because just a few days ago the Senate rejected a request to investigate the possible exchange of information between German and US authorities about the defendants. Reason at the time: There was no evidence of such data sharing. However, with the now known meeting and the planned workshop, these indications have increased significantly. The declared purpose of the workshop is ultimately to intensify data exchange. A possible transfer of information to the right-wing Trump administration could have significant consequences for the defendants, for example for payment transactions or freedom of travel.

The witness arrives on site at 11:10 a.m. In April 2022, she saw some people walking out of the Thor Steinar store in Magdeburg from her snack bar. She couldn't say much about it; she barely spoke to the store employees that day. In doing so, she contradicts the interrogation protocol at the time, but apparently it is also about something else: the witness claims to have seen a person take off their mouth and nose protection and drop it. She then claims to have picked it up with a “pulp cloth” and put it in a plastic bag. Who needs forensics when you've obviously seen a crime scene? But later readings of DNA evaluations are also about this mask. DNA traces from a suspect who was not charged in Düsseldorf and who was in hiding are said to have been found on it. This was also discussed briefly yesterday.

The question remains why the Senate is opening a completely new complex with the action in Magdeburg that has nothing to do with the defendants. The DNA does not come from any of the defendants here and none of the defendants are accused of having been there in Magdeburg. If the Senate wants to make any connections visible, it has to go a long way. This seems less like an obvious part of taking evidence than an attempt to establish some connections.

An article from the right-wing magazine was also read outYoung freedom. Shortly after the actions in Budapest, they were already talking about a “left-wing extremist terrorist cell” and also published the full names, pictures and birthplaces of two defendants.

Then let's deal with Adidas Samba shoes again: The Senate rejects the defense's request to examine lawyer Nießing as a witness about his own Adidas Samba shoes. He should testify about their wear and tear. The Senate looked at the shoes and their signs of wear in pictures. That is enough for an assessment of how meaningful such traces of wear are as an identification feature. We then receive classified information from Adidas itself. We find out how thick the sole of the Adidas Samba shoes is for different shoe sizes. Hopefully there wasn't a corporate spy from Nike in the room.

The last major point was the reading of the interrogation protocols of the attacked German Nazi Robert Fischer.

Fischer told the police in Budapest and the BKA that he had flown to Budapest with his partner Sabine Brinkmann to take part in the so-called “Day of Honor” (in Hungary “Day of the Outbreak”). While other right-wing extremists were stopped by the police at Frankfurt Airport, they were allowed to leave. At the same time, he declared that he “agreed” with the ideology behind it. Above all, he wanted to go on the hike. Via the right-wing rock band's Telegram channelEternal stormHe found out about the Blood and Honor concert and then decided to attend it too.

During the concert, he and Brinkmann noticed anti-fascists on the opposite side of the street. On the way back they were finally attacked. Fischer described the attack as coordinated and said a woman shouted commands in English. According to his estimate, the attack on him lasted a maximum of 45 to 60 seconds. He himself remained standing during the entire attack.

In his statement, Fischer emphasized several times that he was aware of similar attacks by leftists and that, in his opinion, they always followed a similar pattern. As an example, he referred to a description that he had heard from Stefan Behrens, the guitarist of “Kategorie C” and a neo-Nazi active in the JN environment, about such an attack. Fischer also stated that he practiced martial arts at the “Alpha Sports Academy” (you can’t make it up) in Melle and had been doing so more since the attack. He already had photos of the accused through the right-wing extremist associationOne percentseen.

Before the end of the trial day, the presiding judge makes a few organizational comments. Because of his statements, two witnesses will no longer be heard. There are still some uncertainties, but without further requests from the GBA and defense, the Senate would probably get through the planned program this month. Since further applications are expected, the procedure will then move accordingly.

It continues next Tuesday, Wednesday next week (September 9th) is canceled again.

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