Enlarge image
Bamf branch in Bremen (archive picture)
Photo: Carmen Jaspersen / dpa
The large-scale process of grievances at the Bremen Refugee Office ended with a fine of 6,000 euros.
The regional court sentenced a 42-year-old refugee lawyer from Hildesheim for granting advantages in two cases.
The court acquitted him of all accused violations of immigration or asylum law (
Ref .: 2 KLs 311 Js 71761/17
).
"The accusation of asylum fraud is gone," said defense attorney Henning Sonnenberg in a first reaction. In his plea, he referred to the dimensions that the case originally had: In 2018, there were nationwide headlines that at the branch office of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) in Bremen en masse and unjustly granted asylum. This intensified the dispute over asylum policy right up to the federal government. Checks revealed irregularities and organizational deficiencies in the refugee agency.
As an advantage, the chamber assessed that the lawyer had paid the then head of the Bamf branch office two nights in the hotel for 65 euros each in 2015.
The lawyer and the civil servant were friends.
There was an "unpleasant mixture of professional and private interests," said the presiding judge Maike Wilkens.
The accused is Yazidis.
At that time he represented many members of this religious minority, some of whom had fled Syria and Iraq before the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS).
At his instigation, the head of the authorities moved some cases to Bremen.
The trial of the 60-year-old was dropped in April.
She accepted a monetary requirement of 10,000 euros.
In her case, too, the court dropped all charges relating to violations of immigration law.
The public prosecutor's office demanded a fine of 270 daily rates per 100 euros for the lawyer on Thursday.
The judgment is not yet final, but the defense does not want to go into appeal.
The public prosecutor's office in Bremen is currently investigating whether public prosecutors fueled the Bamf scandal with prejudicial statements in the media.
wit / wow / dpa