Berlin apologizes for brothel raid

Microphones and headphones on a table in a courtroom. © Jonas Walzberg/dpa/Symbolbild

Hundreds of police officers, customs investigators and prosecutors are involved in the raid on a brothel in 2016. Suspects are arrested. But it never comes to trial. Now comes an apology.

Berlin - Seven years after a raid on the large brothel "Artemis", Berlin has apologized to the operators and is paying 250,000 euros in compensation. "The state of Berlin apologizes for the pre-trial detention and the considerable disadvantages suffered by the then accused as a result of the search, pre-trial detention, the indictment and the statements of the public prosecutor's office," the Senate Justice Department said in a statement on Friday. A settlement had been reached before the Court of Appeal, with which the entire legal dispute was concluded. Initially, the "B.Z." had reported.

Background: Hundreds of police officers, customs investigators and prosecutors searched the brothel on April 14, 2016. Several suspects had been arrested at the time. After that, the public prosecutor's office had spoken, among other things, of links to organized crime. But the accusations collapsed. At the end of 2018, the Berlin district court did not allow the prosecutor's indictment.

The two operators of the brothel then went to court - with success. Last December, the Berlin Court of Appeal ordered the state to pay 100,000 euros in damages. It was about statements made by the public prosecutor's office at a press conference in April 2016, some of which were "culpably contrary to official duty" and prejudicial, exaggerated and luridly formulated, the court reasoned. Previously, a settlement had burst.

However, under the leadership of Left Party Senator Lena Kreck, the verdict was to be appealed. The administration of justice referred to the decision of the Berlin Regional Court in the first instance, which had not found any breach of official duty and had dismissed the action. At the same time, another trial was underway: the brothel operators sued for compensation for the time spent in pre-trial detention.

According to the Tagesspiegel, the state of Berlin was threatened with a new defeat before the Court of Appeal. The administration of justice relented and a settlement was reached last Tuesday. "The process is thus completed as a whole," said a spokesman.

The lawyers of the operators spoke of a paradigm shift after the change at the top of the justice department, which is now led by Felor Badenberg (non-party). "Seven years after this unprecedented breach of the law, the state of Berlin is finally showing its willingness to unequivocally distance itself from the serious breaches of official duty," said lawyer Margarete Gräfin von Galen. Her colleague Silvin Bruns described it as commendable that "after the change of government, the new house management had faced up to the facts".

The operators want to donate the compensation awarded to them of a total of more than 100,000 euros for charitable purposes, a spokesman said. In addition, the employees were to receive money as compensation for the pre-trial detention they had suffered. Dpa