exclusive
A criminal complaint in connection with the Hanau attack made serious allegations against the police: they allegedly ordered an emergency exit to be closed. However, the public prosecutor’s office rejects new investigations.
The Hanau public prosecutor sees no initial suspicion against the bar operator or against Hanau police officers for negligent homicide or other acts. According to information from ARD legal editorial team She therefore refused to initiate a new investigation into the emergency exit in the “Arena Bar”.
Said Nesar Hashemi and Hamza Kurtović were shot there on February 19, 2020. At that time, a right-wing terrorist killed nine people for racist motives in downtown Hanau and in the Hanau-Kesselstadt district, then shot his mother and himself.
First Investigation process Discontinued in 2021
After the right-wing terrorist attack, there were indications that the emergency exit at the “Arena Bar” crime scene in Hanau-Kesselstadt was locked. It is suspected that the victims would therefore not have been able to escape from the perpetrator. The majority of the members of the Hanau investigative committee in the Hesse state parliament now assume that the emergency exit was locked on the night of the crime.
However, the Hanau public prosecutor’s investigation into the emergency exit due to negligent homicide was discontinued in 2021.
Serious allegations against the Hanau police
At the end of September 2023 there was a new criminal complaint. She was provided by Hamza Kurtović’s family. The complaint makes serious allegations against the Hanau police and contains the statement of a new witness.
The written version of his witness statement is available ARD legal editorial team before. The witness confirms that he personally witnessed a police officer instructing the bar operator to keep the emergency exit door locked. During raids, bar patrons could otherwise escape through the emergency exit.
Public prosecutor does not see negligent homicide
Despite the new witness statement, the Hanau public prosecutor sees no initial suspicion of a crime. Their reasoning: It is not criminally important whether a police officer may have illegally ordered the emergency exit to be closed. Because: It cannot be clarified with sufficient certainty whether the bar patrons would actually have run to the emergency exit – if the emergency exit had been open on the night of the crime.
The later victims heard the shots in the kiosk in front of the bar. Then, on the way to the emergency exit, they first had to move towards the door from which the perpetrator came out seconds later. It is not clear whether they did that. It is therefore not sufficiently certain that a locked emergency exit was the cause of the victims’ deaths in the “Arena Bar”.
Hamza Kurtović’s relatives, however, say: Everyone in the bar was regulars. Before the crime, two of them went to the emergency exit during the evening and found it locked. So everyone would have known that the emergency exit was closed. That’s the only reason the bar patrons wouldn’t have run to the emergency exit.
expert have them Escape options examined
The possible escape behavior of the victims in the “Arena Bar” was also the subject of an expert hearing in the Hanau investigative committee. A psychologist explained that people do not run towards a source of danger, but rather flee from it. At the same time, she emphasized that an emergency exit would no longer play a role in escape considerations if refugees knew that it was locked. The criminal complaint filed by Hamza Kurtović’s family also emphasizes that the bar patrons did not run to the emergency exit on the night of the crime because they knew for sure that the emergency exit was closed.
The committee of inquiry also discussed a report that the London research collective “Forensic Architecture” prepared in 2022. One conclusion of the report: Most bar patrons would have had enough time 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.
What does the Hanau-Committee of inquiry?
What will happen legally after the public prosecutor’s decision not to investigate again is unclear. It is also unclear what the new witness statements from the criminal complaint filed by Hamza Kurtović’s family mean for the Hanau investigative committee. Its final report is expected at the beginning of December.