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Berlin-Tiergarten district court: defender starts with allegations against the left-wing radical scene
Photo: Andreas Gora / imago images
It's a neo-Nazi's drug confession.
Maurice P. had his defense attorney read out a statement on his behalf in front of the district court in Berlin-Tiergarten on Thursday.
In it, the 29-year-old presents himself as a victim: addicted to drugs, threatened by left-wing radicals and harassed by the police.
He admits that on the morning of July 4, 2021, after a night of drinking, he raised a cutter knife against a Jamaican in front of a café in Berlin's Neukölln district.
However, he could not explain how the cut on the man's neck - just next to the carotid artery - came about.
"It wasn't my intention to hurt him right there," says attorney Wolfram Nahrath on behalf of his client.
Maurice P. only wants to have the knife in his hand to protect himself.
He was in a panic.
According to Maurice P., the violence is said to have emanated from the other person at the time.
He suddenly hit him, attacked him with two beer bottles and a chair or a table.
Maurice P. said again and again that he didn't want to fight.
"I just wanted to get away." But since he wanted his peaked cap back, which had been knocked off his head, he didn't just run away, but kept walking in the direction of his opponent.
He only fled when he heard the man ask his companions for a knife.
He asked a driver to call the police.
A little later, Maurice P. was taken into custody.
The two men are said to have talked for several hours beforehand.
It was about “politics”, Maurice P. lets his lawyer say.
And that the Jamaican didn't like his statements.
What exactly Maurice P. said, he does not reveal.
The public prosecutor's office lists racist and anti-Semitic statements in their indictment.
Then the situation escalated.
"Of course I'm a so-called right-winger," Maurice P. has his lawyer say.
He does not make any further statements about his attitude.
Instead, he talks about his drug use.
It is the biography of a failure that attorney Nahrath outlines.
His biggest success in life so far is his drug withdrawal while in custody, Nahrath claims for Maurice P.
He has not achieved much more in life.
Detention as a life saver?
For years, Maurice P. had consumed tilidine, cocaine and alcohol regularly and in increasing amounts.
He poisoned his body, made "many wrong decisions", destroyed relationships, behaved "completely antisocial".
"I had a big mouth, was a big-headed braggart."
In July 2021, Maurice P. was held in custody for five months.
The detention had “an absolutely positive effect” on him.
He is off drugs and only drinks alcohol on special occasions.
Lawyer Nahrath regularly defends clients from the right-wing scene, such as Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck and Ralf Wohlleben.
Wohlleben once helped the NSU terrorists to get hold of the weapon with which they shot nine men of Turkish and Greek origin.
Now Nahrath is defending in room 101 of the Berlin Criminal Court Maurice P., whom the Berlin public prosecutor's office has charged with dangerous bodily harm, among other things.
The federal prosecutor is also investigating against the 29-year-old.
The Federal Public Prosecutor suspects Maurice P. of having been involved with the right-wing terrorist organization »Atomic Weapons Division«.
It's a suspicion that doesn't play a role in this trial in Berlin.
Maurice P. admits that on July 4, 2021, a few hours before the knife attack, around three or four in the morning, he gave the Hitler salute in public.
He also admits to having shown the Hitler salute one afternoon in May 2019 in front of a memorial to the Sinti and Roma murdered under National Socialism.
At the time, he had his picture taken and sent the photo to acquaintances with scornful comments.
Attorney Nahrath does not carry out his client's confession to these acts.
He only names the relevant numbers of the indictment and says that Maurice P. admits the allegations.
The SS symbol as a jewel
He claims he was not involved in an attack on a group of leftists in September 2018.
However, he admits to having walked through Neukölln at night in March 2020 together with others yelling "Sieg Heil".
He claims not to have known that he was wearing a T-shirt from a group that has been banned since January 2020 - the militant neo-Nazi organization »Combat 18«.
Maurice P. claims that he did not have the T-shirt and an Adolf Hitler badge visible at the time anyway, but wore it under his jacket.
He claims to have asked the police officers who checked him that night to make a note of this.
"Not true," the officials would have replied.
Then a policeman pressed his face painfully against a wall.
At the time, he did not knowingly wear a ring with an "SS" skull on one finger of his left hand.
He likes listening to black metal music and bought the ring because of that passion.
"I didn't even think about the SS."
He says he has had an "SS" tattooed on his index finger on the same hand.
What Maurice P. now wears for a tattoo remains his secret.
On the first day of the trial, he covered his left hand with his right throughout.
On this second day of the hearing, a bandage around his hand prevents the tattooed finger from being seen.
Defense attorney Nahrath does not begin the explanation for his client that day with his supposed years of drug use, nor with the statements about the allegations, but with allegations against the left-wing radical scene.
In the fall of 2020, Maurice P. was injured in the face with a knife by a man whom he associates with the Antifa scene, he says.
And a few days ago, an alleged left-wing radical stood on his balcony early in the morning.
Drugs, left-wing radicals, a Jamaican, the police - Maurice P. presents himself as a victim. He does not want to answer the questions of the court, the public prosecutor's office and the private prosecutor that day.
He slept very badly the night before.