He is Germany’s most famous rocker, and now Frank Hanebuth has been acquitted in Spain in a criminal trial against dozens of alleged members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. In addition to the German from Garbsen near Hanover, another twelve defendants were acquitted on Tuesday, the State Court in Madrid announced. 32 people were sentenced to prison terms of up to two years.
The court emphasized in its statement that the court ruled out the formation of a criminal organization in all cases because it had not been proven that the defendants were part of a “criminal enterprise” – as alleged by the public prosecutor’s office.
It is the end of a chaotic trial – ten years have already passed since Hanebuth’s arrest. The now 58-year-old was arrested in 2013 during a raid on a finca in Mallorca. The public prosecutor’s office accused him of forming a criminal organization, money laundering, threats and illegal possession of weapons. Some of his co-defendants had also been accused of pimping and drug trafficking. Hanebuth had always denied the allegations.
For security reasons, the trial was moved to San Fernando de Henares, where terror trials are usually heard
The wait for the trial was described as disproportionately long, even in judicial circles. The ten-day trial did not take place before the National Court of Justice until February 2023. For security reasons, he had been moved to San Fernando de Henares, a town outside Madrid where terror trials are usually heard.
The crimes the defendants are accused of are said to have been committed on Mallorca between 2009 and 2013 – especially on Playa de Palma, the famous “Ballermann”. The public prosecutor’s office had assured that Hanebuth had also led the Hells Angels on the holiday island. After his arrest, he was initially held in custody for two years, after which he was released on bail of 60,000 euros and under conditions. He was only allowed to leave the country in 2017 and returned to Germany.
Hanebuth was once considered in Germany the Rocker, he was a brothel operator, was in prison for serious bodily harm, was the head of the Hells Angels in Hanover and possibly the entire country. Investigators wanted to prove the latter in 2012, the GSG 9 stormed his property, and the Lower Saxony state parliament decided unanimously to have a ban on the rocker group examined. A little later, the Hells Angels Hannover voluntarily disbanded and their boss Hanebuth gave himself the image of the purified.