Ballstädt trial: suspended sentences for defendants, judge criticizes debate

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A defendant in the regional court in Erfurt

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Martin Schutt / picture alliance / dpa

In February 2014, a fair society was brutally attacked in Ballstädt in Thuringia, and the perpetrators are assigned to the right-wing extremist scene.

Now the regional court in Erfurt has sentenced the defendants to suspended sentences.

You were guilty of dangerous bodily harm, said the presiding judge.

The perpetrators had confessed their involvement in the act during the trial.

Seven of the 11 defendants were sentenced to one year suspended sentences.

The main defendant and one other defendant were given one year and ten months probation.

The proceedings against two of the defendants had been discontinued during the trial against monetary requirements in the amount of 6,000 euros and 3,000 euros, respectively.

In her statement of reasons, the presiding judge criticized the public debate about the process.

The public has a right to information, but no right to meddle in a judicial process, she said.

But everything said and written was an attack on the separation of powers "on an unprecedented scale" and thus an attack on democracy.

Agreements between the accused and the judiciary

The background to the public criticism were agreements, so-called deals, between the judiciary and the accused.

The ezra advice center for those affected by right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic violence in Thuringia had already declared before the verdict that the agreements were a devastating signal to the right-wing scene.

"The entire process symbolizes the massive problem facing the Thuringian judiciary in dealing with right-wing crimes," said ezra project coordinator Franz Zobel after the verdict.

"Neither those affected by right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic violence nor those who want to take action against the well-organized neo-Nazi scene and its right-wing terrorist structures in the Free State can rely on the Thuringian judiciary."

On the day of the verdict, people demonstrated in front of the regional court under the motto "No deal with Nazis!"

The convicts are known in Thuringia, violent and well connected.

Senior Public Prosecutor Hannes Grünseisen had defended the agreements.

It is correct that the defendants "are or were at least largely to be assigned to the extreme right-wing scene."

But one could not prove a political motive, said Grünseisen.

(Read more about the debate here.)

hba / dpa