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Expression of solidarity at a demonstration in Leipzig on September 18, 2021: Lina E. is the only accused in custody
Photo: Sebastian Willnow / dpa
Enrico B. had hardly left his apartment in Leipzig when he was attacked in the early morning of October 2, 2018.
Four masked people allegedly brought him down on the street in front of the house around 7.15 a.m., sprayed pepper spray on his face and hit and kicked him when he was already on the floor.
His face was injured and his left kneecap broke.
"They weren't normal thugs, but perpetrators who must have been tried and tested in martial arts," said the 38-year-old on Wednesday as a witness before the State Security Senate of the Dresden Higher Regional Court. The perpetrators wanted to "seriously injure me with the greatest possible efficiency." He had been kicked "specifically on the kneecap and very specifically on the head with heavy shoes."
A perpetrator had requested several times to kick him in the head.
It was a man's voice.
At the police station he spoke of the "ringleader" of the group.
The attackers would have worn balaclavas and possibly gloves.
They are "athletic", "strong", "all trained" and taller than him, that is, taller than six feet.
The witness also considers the accomplices to be male.
When asked by the Federal Prosecutor's Office, he said: "Without wanting to be chauvinistic, I simply did not trust a woman to commit such an assault."
Multiple criminal record
Enrico B. is a joint plaintiff in the trial against Lina E., Lennart A., Jannis R. and Jonathan M. The four are accused of membership in a left-wing extremist criminal organization and attacks on neo-Nazis. Lina E., 26 years old, is the only defendant in custody. The Federal Prosecutor's Office assigns her a management position within the group. The indictment in the Enrico B. case is directed against her alone, not against the three co-defendants. According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, Lina E. is said to have attacked Enrico B. together with three other people.
Enrico B. is a former NPD functionary, former NPD city councilor, former NPD district chairman and has several criminal records.
After an internal party dispute, he left the NPD in 2016.
Enrico B. is still known as a right-wing extremist to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony, and he is named in the 2019 Report on the Protection of the Constitution.
For Enrico B. there is no question who is behind the attack.
He assumes that he was attacked by a group of "violent left-wing extremists" who even accept "ending a person's life".
Injuries to the face
The presiding judge Hans Schlueter-Staats admonished the witness several times to limit himself to facts in his statements, to refrain from evaluations and conclusions and to stick to the truth.
He confronts Enrico B. with his statement to the police. At the time he said that the perpetrators had worn "light shoes in the form of sneakers." Today he speaks of "heavy shoes". There are also safety shoes with metal in the sole that look like sneakers, says Enrico B. In any case, the injuries were so massive that they couldn't have been caused by simple sneakers.
The injuries on his face revealed the profile of a shoe, he says. Back then, he photographed the healing process every day with his cell phone. The presiding judge asks if the photos still exist. They do. However, his cell phone and the photos are at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) Saxony. The fact that he did not voluntarily hand in his cell phone there, but rather that it was confiscated, only becomes clear when asked. The LKA is investigating Enrico B. He does not want to and does not have to say anything about which allegations are involved.
The court asks whether there was verbal hostility against him in 2018 before the crime. Enrico B. says he has been subject to repeated attacks since his involvement with the NPD. The judge wants to know exactly what accusations have been made against him. "Oh God," says the witness, "a lot." But then he can't think of much.
The former NPD man complains about a member of the state parliament of the left and a Leipzig city council of the Greens. He describes them as "intellectual arsonists" who tried to "incite" the "left-wing clientele" against him on social media. The presiding judge asks him to remain objective and to give concrete examples of the alleged agitation. When the NPD demonstrated against a refugee home with him, it was suggested that he tried to attack the accommodation, he says. There are no further examples.
The Senate asks whether the witness may have been involved in other disputes that could give rise to a motive for the attack. In the NPD environment? In a business environment? Enrico B. denies everything. The attack in autumn 2018 could not have had anything to do with his past as a right-wing hooligan. "I haven't played football since 2008." In 2008 he was permanently banned from playing in Leipzig.
