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Police operation on November 18, 2020 in Berlin
Photo: Marius Schwarz / IMAGO
He and his wife traveled from Saxony to Berlin in November 2020. At a demonstration between the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, they wanted to talk to people who, like them, were economically affected by the Corona requirements. This is what the accused Heiko M. says in the district court of Berlin-Tiergarten. He is 50 years old, works in the Ore Mountains as a caretaker in his wife's beauty salon. The beauty salon had to close in lockdown in 2020.
"The way politics regulated it pulled the rug out from under our feet," he said in court.
“The crisis has put us in dire straits.” Loans for the home and studio were squeezing.
So they drove to the demo in Berlin.
At first the atmosphere in front of the Brandenburg Gate was peaceful.
"Then there were more and more people." Suddenly it was a "huge crowd" from which they could no longer find their way out.
The situation escalated - and according to the conviction of the court, the accused did his part.
Heiko M. has no criminal record.
He is also not a corona denier, says his lawyer.
Heiko M. tells the judge that he is vaccinated right at the start of the hearing when asked.
He wears his mask over his mouth and nose.
According to a police officer, around 8,000 demonstrators were on the streets in Berlin on November 18, 2020.
On that day, the Bundestag was to vote on the Infection Protection Act.
It was the day when, among other things, the then Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) was harassed, insulted and filmed by a right-wing activist in the Reichstag building.
The mood on the street was aggressive.
He had never experienced such a willingness to use violence before, a young officer said as a witness in court.
"It really was a mission that I will always remember."
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As a civilian policeman, he was among the demonstrators at the time.
From the crowd, calls were made to storm the Reichstag, he reports.
At least 2,000 people walked towards the Reichstag.
They only got as far as the barriers.
Some opposed it.
"I too was pressed against the bars." Officials and demonstrators sprayed each other with pepper spray.
It was only with difficulty that they could have held back the crowd.
Among the people were violent members of the right-wing scene and hooligans from all over Germany.
Bottles and firecrackers flew.
Several police squads, including water cannons, were deployed.
Throwing bottles at police officers
The young plainclothes officer says that at some point he noticed the accused.
Heiko M. stood with his wife a few meters away from the barriers on a house wall.
Heiko M. was masked.
He wore black clothes, black cap, black fingerless gloves, balaclava and sunglasses.
The witness says he saw the defendant throw a beer bottle at the helmeted officers.
He doesn't know if he hit.
A colleague then took over the further observation of the accused.
The second plainclothes police officer says he was standing in the immediate vicinity of Heiko M. and saw that he had thrown four or five more bottles into the crowd.
Two bottles hit the police.
At his signal, Heiko M. was arrested.
The defendant essentially denies the allegations.
He doesn't want to know that the police broke up the meeting via loudspeaker announcement.
He says police officers pushed through the crowd and "beat people at random."
There was a "giant push" and then the water cannons were used.
“And then it got really crass.” Bottles flew from all sides.
A plastic bottle landed on the ground in front of him, he picked it up and threw it back.
It was a small empty coke bottle.
In hindsight, he's sorry for what he did.
'It's wrong to throw anything.
You do not do that."
The balaclava is his underhelmet protection for cycling, he wore it that day to meet the mask requirement.
So not to disguise yourself.
"I don't take jokes like that," says the judge
The court does not believe his version.
The judge is convinced that Heiko M. did not throw a plastic bottle, but six glass beer bottles.
The court sentenced him to one year and eight months in prison, suspended on probation, for particularly serious breaches of the peace, attempted dangerous bodily harm and assault on police officers.
The judge imposed a sentence that was four months higher than that demanded by the public prosecutor.
"I don't understand how to joke about something like that," says the judge in the verdict's reasoning.
Throwing bottles poses “a very high level of danger”.
It was "pure coincidence" that no one was injured.
In addition, Heiko M. committed the crimes “in the protection of the already heated crowd”.
"I don't have the impression that you went to Berlin to make a riot," the judge says, too.
But he has no doubts about the statements made by the police officers.
The defense had requested acquittal.
Heiko M. only threw back a plastic bottle but didn't throw any glass bottles, his lawyer said.
The situation was so confusing that the officials may have been wrong.
The judgment is not final.
