exclusive
After the attack in Hanau, there was suspicion that the emergency exit at the “Arena Bar” crime scene was locked. Now there is a new criminal complaint – with serious allegations against the police.
After Information of the SWR Hamza Kurtović’s family filed a criminal complaint today because of the allegedly locked emergency exit at a crime scene of the Hanau attack. Hamza Kurtović was shot dead on February 19, 2020 in the “Arena Bar” in Hanau-Kesselstadt. The perpetrator killed nine people in Hanau’s city center and in the Kesselstadt district for racist motives, then shot his mother and himself.
The allegation in the criminal complaint: The emergency exit of the “Arena Bar” was locked on the night of the crime. That’s why the victims of the attack didn’t flee there, but instead fled to the back of the bar. There they had no way of escaping the perpetrator.
The new criminal complaint
According to the criminal complaint, whoever is responsible for locking the emergency exit could be charged with negligent homicide. The complaint contains serious allegations against the former bar operator, but also against the police. According to the criminal complaint, the SWR is available, a new witness statement has emerged.
A witness heard the police ordering the emergency exit of the Arena Bar to be locked. The background: The local police wanted to prevent anyone from escaping through the emergency exit during the frequent raids on the bar.
First Investigation process was discontinued
After the right-wing terrorist attack, survivors and regular guests at the “Arena Bar” pointed out that it was not possible to escape from the perpetrator through the emergency exit. The emergency exit door has usually been locked for years and was also locked on the night of the crime. The police’s first crime scene report after the attack also states that the door was “locked when the crime scene was taken.” Nevertheless, the emergency exit of the “Arena Bar” only became a topic in the media at the end of 2020. The Hanau public prosecutor’s office also only investigated more than six months after the attack. And only because of a criminal complaint filed by relatives of the victims.
This investigation into the emergency exit was closed in August 2021. Reason: The “locking conditions of the emergency exit” on the night of the crime could not be “clarified with sufficient certainty”. During previous attempts to open it, the door could have just stuck and not been locked. In addition, it cannot be assumed with certainty that the two people murdered in the bar – Said Nesar Hashemi and Hamza Kurtović – would have managed to escape through an open emergency exit.
Evidence of a locked emergency exit
There has been criticism of the public prosecutor’s decision to end the investigation since 2021. Also in the investigative committee of the Hessian state parliament. Recordings from a surveillance camera in the “Arena Bar” also play a role here. These show visitors to the bar on the evening of February 19, 2020, before the crime happened. The young men walk towards the emergency exit, then disappear from the camera’s field of view and come right back. A clue that they couldn’t get outside through the door.
In contrast, the former bar operator of the “Arena Bar” testified: “In general, the emergency exit was always open.” However, the bar operator was himself a suspect in the investigation. If he was responsible for the locked emergency exit, he could have committed a criminal offense for negligent homicide. The MPs on the investigative committee rated the bar operator’s statements as not credible.
A report from London research experts
There were also doubts about the public prosecutor’s decision to dismiss the case because of a report prepared by the London research collective Forensic Architecture 2022. One conclusion of the report: Most bar visitors could have managed to escape from the perpetrator if the emergency exit had been open. The five young men in the bar – including the two victims Said Nesar Hashemi and Hamza Kurtović – could probably have gotten to safety in time.
The public prosecutor, however, calculated the time incorrectly. There was more time to escape. However, in 2022, the Hesse General Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the Hanau prosecutors’ decision not to bring charges.
New allegations against the Hanau police
In its 2021 dismissal decision, the Hanau public prosecutor’s office also stated: There was no actual evidence that police officers or the Hanau public order office had ordered the emergency exit to be closed.
However, the new criminal complaint now claims that such an order was given by the police. The advertisement contains a written witness statement from November 2022. A copy is available SWR before. A witness there assures that in 2017 he personally heard an order from the police to exit the “Arena Bar” emergency exit.
An order from the police?
The witness himself was arrested in June 2017 during a raid on the “Arena Bar”. After his arrest, he was held in handcuffs by police outside the bar for an hour. On this occasion he heard that a police officer had instructed the bar operator to keep the emergency exit closed in the future. During raids, bar patrons could otherwise escape through the emergency exit. The new criminal complaint emphasizes: There are clear lines of inquiry as to which police officer allegedly ordered the emergency exit to be closed.
Before the investigative committee, the bar operator denied that there had been such an order from the police to keep the emergency exit locked. In response to a query from the “Frankfurter Rundschau”, the South Hosthesse Police Headquarters responded in 2022 that the police “never give instructions or requests” to “close emergency exits”.
A second new witness
The criminal complaint that has now been filed also contains the testimony of another new witness. He is said to have regularly observed police raids in the “Arena Bar” from a balcony opposite. From there, both the entrance to the bar and the back of the building can be seen. This is the side on which you can exit through the emergency exit.
The witness noticed that during police raids, people sometimes escaped through the emergency exit at the back of the bar. From a certain point in time at the end of 2017, he no longer saw anyone coming out of the emergency exit during police operations. There were no longer any police officers protecting the back. For the new criminal complaint, this is an indication that the emergency exit was usually locked from then on. And that the police at least knew that.
At the request of SWR the responsible police headquarters replied again that the police never issue instructions or requests to close emergency exits. The South East Hesse Police Headquarters also have no information that Hessian police officers from another area of responsibility or employees of the city of Hanau have issued such an instruction.
What’s next?
The public prosecutor must now examine the new criminal complaint and decide whether to investigate again and whether to file charges. It remains to be seen whether there will actually be a lawsuit against the former bar operator or even against Hessian police officers because of the emergency exit.
It is also unclear whether the new criminal complaint will have an impact on the final report of the Hanau investigative committee. The report will not be published until after the Hessian state elections on October 8th.