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Hospital in Hameln (archive picture): "What happens in these three hours is called a 'tumult offense' in police German"
Photo: Ulrich Behmann / DWZ / dpa
This text is an abridged and edited chapter from the SPIEGEL book "The Power of the Clans", which was published on October 5th by the DVA.
The case, which goes down in criminal history as the "Lintel from Hamelin", begins in a village.
Around 9:30 p.m. on January 13, 2015, a man in a Halloween mask stormed the Aerzen gas station and threatened the cashier.
He steals cash and cigarettes and escapes in a car.
Under the disguise is 26-year-old Mohamed S., a member of an extended Arab family from Hameln, eleven kilometers away.
The police arrested him in an arcade two hours later.
The officers find a bag with the booty, the mask and an air gun under a bush.
With the suspect in the back seat, the police drive back to the police building.
At around 11.10 p.m. the patrol car stopped in front of the roller shutter door to the courtyard.
Mohamed S. manages to roll down the window and call for his brother Ibrahim S., who is already waiting for him in front of the guard.
Although his hands are tied, he tries to get out of the car.
The policeman sitting next to him grabs his neck and prevents him from escaping.
The brother is there immediately, pulls the door open and tries to drag Mohamed S. outside.
The prisoners were not released because other officers rushed over and wrestled the brother to the ground.
Both brothers end up in a cell in the basement of the building.
Mohamed and Ibrahim are the most criminal members of the extended S family. The parents came to Germany from Lebanon in 1988.
Ibrahim and Mohamed were born in Hameln.
Your nationality is officially "unclear."
The men have a "fiction certificate": In the complicated world of immigration law, this is a temporary residence permit.
The men are practically on trial in the country.
They mainly tried their hand at criminal law.
You are a regular customer of the Criminal Police Office 2.
This department hunts burglars and robbers.
Almost every officer has searched the brothers' apartments or uncle's shop for stolen property.
We know each other now.
Hamelin has only 57,000 inhabitants.
Ibrahim S. is released the next morning.
For Mohamed S. the cell only opens shortly before 2 p.m.
A high commissioner ties his hands in front of his body.
A detail that will be important later.
Had he struggled or been aggressive, his hands would have been fixed behind his back.
Around 2 p.m., two criminal investigators reached the district court with S.
On the seventh floor of the exposed aggregate concrete high-rise, judge M. should decide whether the 26-year-old will be transferred to pre-trial detention or allowed to go home subject to certain conditions.
Ten members of the clan are already waiting for Mohamed S in front of the skyscraper: three men, four women and three children.
The spokesman is an uncle who is also called Ibrahim, but is called "Ibo".
The police officers are not entirely at ease with the situation.
What does the family want here at court?
Do you want to free the robber?
They call for support.
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