The Munich prison in Stadelheim is not an unfamiliar place for Micha Frey. In November, the Passau politics student spent six days in a cell in the large prison. After climate blockades in downtown Munich, the police put him and other supporters of the “last generation” in so-called preventive custody. The police can order this measure under certain conditions to prevent future offences. It has nothing to do with a court sentence.
The procedure triggered criticism at the time, and one activist spent a full month in prison. Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) promised that this type of deprivation of liberty – a special feature of the Bavarian Police Tasks Act (PAG) – would remain “the absolute exception”. But climate activist Frey has been back in Stadelheim since last week. This time he will be incarcerated for two and a half weeks. He had glued himself to the street in Passau on Monday a week ago.
“Because it was to be feared that the 24-year-old would commit further administrative offenses of considerable importance to the general public or criminal offenses with comparable future actions,” the police ordered a 30-day detention. The Passau district court shortened the measure, saying it should last “at the latest” until February 23 – the day after Ash Wednesday.
The date could play a special role. As the “last generation” claims, citing a “high-ranking police officer”, Passau’s mayor Jürgen Dupper (SPD) is said to have called on the security forces to show “hard edge” against the climate activists before the political Ash Wednesday. In the Passau Dreiländerhalle, a large show of the CSU traditionally takes place on this day, the place is in the nationwide focus. The “Last Generation” assumes that the strict approach was taken out of “political calculation” in order to ensure peace. The group cannot provide any evidence.
Mayor Dupper does not want to comment on the accusation of repeated SZ inquiries. One could “not understand which agreement is referred to here,” says his spokeswoman only. The police headquarters in Lower Bavaria emphasized that the political appointment “played no role” in the preventive measure. In the district court of Passau, it is pointed out that the process is “not public”, but that all procedural rules have been observed.
For the Munich lawyer Jochen Ringler, who has already lodged a complaint on behalf of the climate activist Frey, another point is crucial: He believes that preventive detention is fundamentally unsuitable for stopping the illegal blockades of the “last generation”. “The PAG is being abused here,” criticizes Ringler. It was designed to prevent terrorist attacks and serious crime, not protests. In addition, the movement has repeatedly shown that it cannot be dissuaded from its actions. “When in doubt, the state would have to repeat preventive detention as often as it likes,” he says. Then his client would probably not have seen the inside of the JVA Stadelheim for the last time.