Between youth welfare, prison and criminal justice: The trial of four young refugees

The 2nd day of the trial

There are five of us in the huge, cold high-security hall of the regional court. During the renovation of the regional court building on Salzstrasse, which took several years, trials took place in a room in the public prosecutor's office building.

One of the spectators is the mother of one of the defendants, and a second person translates for her.

At 1:00 p.m. the four defendants are tied hand and foot and led into the hall, looking around somewhat shyly. The anklets will not be removed during the entire session.

The victim is from FreiburgAttorney Mengrepresented in the trial, an interpreter translated for some of the defendants.

The following hour consists mainly of the defendants' previous convictions being read out. These include threats, insults, theft, drug possession and trespassing. Some of the proceedings have already been carried out by the public prosecutor's office under juvenile criminal lawset, or terminated by judicial instructions.

Abdel (name changed), the eldest of the defendants, who was born in Syria in 2004, has a significant criminal record. TheYearin which hundreds of Syrian Kurds, including children, were arrested and killed in Syria. As a child, Abdel was sent to live with his grandfather in Turkey, where he sold fruit and vegetables and did shopping for the military. His mother lived in Lebanon. In the summer of 2015, Abdel finally came to Freiburg with his father at the age of 11, although he himself would have preferred to stay in Turkey.

Abdel is repeatedly in court, with the allegations becoming increasingly serious: from driving without a license, to theft, extortion, robbery, and finally sexual violence. Of his 22 years, he has therefore already spent several years in prison.

Abrupt end to the second day of the trial

While Judge Kernler prepares to read out details of the last verdict, a court sergeant comes to the judge's table and whispers with the presiding judge Bürgerlin. It's about the return transport of the accused, because the respective law enforcement officers are apparently waiting. Now a discussion ensues in which lawyers also take part, because the second day of the trial is expressly marked as “Slide or jumper appointment" was announced, lasting about 10 minutes. The chairman insists that he has announced a "short" day of the trial, although what exactly "short" means is in the eye of the beholder.

Such appointments only serve to ensure that certain deadlines are met, as a process can usually only be interrupted for up to three weeks. If this deadline were exceeded, the process would have to start again. So bridging appointments are planned in which only a few minutes of negotiations are held, for example some document is read out, in order to comply with the form.

After a short back and forth, it was agreed to end the trial day for today. The question that still remained open was who would come from the next day of the trialJuvenile justice assistancewill appear, because in view of the young age of the accused, the law requires the involvement of the youth court assistance, which is legally responsible for each caseresponsible youth welfare officeis affiliated.

The trial will take place on October 21st, November 4th, November 11th, November 16th, November 18th, November 23rd, November 25th, December 2nd, December 7th, December 9th. and December 11, 2026 and starts at 9 a.m. in the central process building on Heinrich-von-Stephan-Str. 1 in Freiburg,

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