After a squatting protest against the Munich auto show IAA Mobility, five defendants were found guilty of trespassing on Thursday. Among them is a journalist from the daily newspaper taz – although he had stated that in September last year he only reported from the building occupied by young climate protection activists. The building belongs to the Free State of Bavaria.
The journalist, like three other suspects, received a warning with the reservation of punishment before the district court in Munich. This means that they only have to pay a fine of 30 daily rates if they commit another offense within a year. A fifth defendant, on the other hand, received a fine of 40 daily rates because he had already appeared in connection with similar actions.
Protesters occupied this house near the main train station during the IAA to demonstrate against the motor show.
(Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa)
The public prosecutor had accused the accused of installing tripping hazards and hanging banners out of the windows during the squatting.
On the fringes of the IAA in September last year, there were numerous protests and several altercations with the police, as well as arrests. Only on Monday was a 23-year-old sentenced to eleven months in prison on probation. The Munich district court found him guilty of resisting law enforcement officers – primarily because he and other participants rushed towards police officers.
In addition, proceedings against three activists of the so-called climate camp, which took place with hundreds of people at the time on the area where the Oktoberfest is usually celebrated, are still pending before the district court. Two men and a woman are said to have hung up five posters with a portrait of Abdullah Öcalan on a construction site fence. They are therefore accused of violating the association law. Öcalan is the founder of the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK.