Clashes between far-left activists and police left dozens injured this weekend in Leipzig (East), incidents denounced Sunday by German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
Protesters blocked streets, set fires on public roads and threw projectiles at the police, in response to prison sentences handed down by the German courts this week against four far-left activists.
About fifty police officers were injured during these demonstrations, which began Friday night, including three police officers declared "unfit for duty," according to a statement from the Leipzig police. The police made about thirty arrests and more than 50 people were placed in preventive detention before being released. "This absurd violence by far-left anarchists and rioters is unjustifiable," the minister said in a statement.
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Hundreds of people took part in the protests on Saturday after the call for a day of action. On Wednesday, a court in Dresden sentenced Leipzig student Lina E. and three other far-left activists to several years in prison. The group was convicted of attacks on neo-Nazis and suspected far-right activists between 2018 and 2020.
Since her arrest in 2020, Lina E. has become a symbol, with the slogan "Free Lina" appearing regularly in far-left protests, according to German media.