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Trial against Berlin neo-Nazi: Hitler salute at the monument

2022-10-04T18:31:57.309Z


He is said to have fatally injured a man with a knife: the trial of neo-Nazi Maurice P. has begun in Berlin. According to the indictment, he made no secret of his racist attitude.


Justice goddess Justitia (symbol image)

Photo: DPA

In court, Maurice P. consistently covers his left hand with his right.

Maybe it's coincidence.

But maybe it's also because the 29-year-old has an SS rune tattooed on his left index finger, according to the indictment.

Since Tuesday, the Berlin neo-Nazi has had to answer before a lay judge at the district court in Berlin-Tiergarten, among other things, on charges of using unconstitutional license plates and dangerous bodily harm.

Maurice P. is silent for the time being, on the next day of the hearing he wants to comment on the allegations.

On the night of July 4, 2021, Maurice P. is said to have shown the Hitler salute twice with a friend between 3.15 a.m. and 4 a.m. in Berlin-Neukölln in front of three men and two women.

According to the prosecutor, he is said to have previously tried to engage the five people in a political conversation.

He is said to have complained about "Kanaken" and an alleged foreign infiltration in Germany.

One of the women then ended the conversation by saying that they "didn't want to chill with Nazis."

The accused and a friend are said to have stretched their right arm in the air.

On the same morning at around six o'clock, Maurice P. is said to have presented himself in front of a kebab shop to the Jamaican Steve W., heavily intoxicated and under the influence of cocaine, for around three hours as a right-wing extremist and Hitler admirer.

Attack with the cutter knife

The indictment states that Maurice P. threw a beer bottle in the direction of the Jamaican.

There had been a fight.

The brawl ended after the defendant twice protested that he did not want to fight.

According to the public prosecutor's office, however, the accused then decided "out of hatred for people with dark skin color" to "mortally injure" Steve W.

He is said to have inflicted a gaping cut on the neck of his victim with a cutter knife, only just missing the carotid artery.

The accused is said to have asked a passer-by to call the police.

Prosecutors had initially brought charges of attempted murder with base motives.

However, the district court saw a penalty-free resignation from an attempted homicide.

The charge of attempted murder turned into a charge of dangerous bodily harm.

Instead of going to the regional court, Maurice P. now has to answer to the district court.

The fact that the trial only begins more than a year after the alleged knife attack could have something to do with another suspicion of the Federal Public Prosecutor General against the accused.

The main hearing was originally supposed to start in April.

Just that morning, the federal prosecutor's office had the apartment of Maurice P. and other suspects searched in a total of eleven federal states.

It was about the allegation of membership in the right-wing terrorist organization "Atomic Weapons Division".

The neo-Nazi group originally comes from the USA and is considered to be extremely violent.

The Federal Criminal Police Office suspects Maurice P. of being a member of the terrorist group.

His defense attorney, Wolfram Nahrath, did not want to comment on this procedure when asked on Tuesday.

If what the Berlin public prosecutor accuses Maurice P. of is true, then he also attracted attention in the fall of 2018 as a militant neo-Nazi.

At that time he is said to have been involved in a kind of vigilante group for the NPD.

The aim of the so-called protection zone campaign was to make the state appear weak.

According to the self-portrayal, the aim was to create a place “where Germans can find security”.

On the night of September 29, 2018, Maurice P. is said to have patrolled Neukölln with up to 19 like-minded people.

They are said to have called three men and a woman "ticks" and "damned Jews" and beat them with chairs and tables.

The woman and two men were injured.

The attackers are said to have shown the Hitler salute.

Right-wing extremists apparently liked to put it on display

Maurice P. is said to have shown the Hitler salute on the afternoon of May 7, 2019 in Berlin's Tiergarten in front of the memorial to the Sinti and Roma murdered under National Socialism.

He had his picture taken with a friend.

Maurice P. sent the photo to his brother and various acquaintances.

In one of his numerous WhatsApp messages, he commented on the picture: "Today we thought of the 6 million people who were stigmatized by the Holocaust." This is how the public prosecutor reads it.

Other charges include nightly shouts of "Sieg Heil" in March 2020 and a "Combat 18" T-shirt that Maurice P. wore at the time.

The militant neo-Nazi group was banned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior in January 2020.

Maurice P. apparently likes to flaunt his extreme right-wing sentiments.

A button with the inscription “Adolf Hitler” and a swastika is said to have been on his T-shirt at the time.

And on his hand with the "SS" tattoo on his finger, he also wore a ring with an "SS" skull.

In court this Tuesday he chose modest clothing: white T-shirt, blue shirt, jeans and medical mask.

The telltale tattoo on the finger is also not visible.

It remains hidden by his right hand.

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2022-10-04

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