process in Kiel
Hit demonstrators at AfD meetings: man in court
The accused enters the hearing room in the Kiel district court. photo
© Frank Molter/dpa
A 22-year-old is said to have hit and injured four people on the sidelines of a demonstration against an AfD event. Now he is in court in Kiel. The defendant repents of wrongdoing.
Because he drove his car to the edge of a demonstrator A 22-year-old who is said to have started and injured the AfD event has had to answer to the Kiel district court since Monday. At the beginning of the trial, the accused regretted the incident: “I can only say that I behaved incorrectly.” He thought about what happened for a long time. “I wish every day that I could go back in time and undo it.” He could only offer his apologies to those affected. “I should have reacted differently.”
The public prosecutor accuses the man of deliberately driving a car onto the sidewalk on October 17, 2020 on the sidelines of a demonstration against an AfD event in Henstedt-Ulzburg in Schleswig-Holstein and hitting and injuring four people. The charge is attempted manslaughter in combination with dangerous bodily harm and dangerous intervention in road traffic. The accused accepted that the people he hit could also be fatally injured. Before the start of the trial, around 100 demonstrators organized by the “Bündnis Tatort Henstedt-Ulzburg” protested in front of the court against right-wing violence. A poster read: “It wasn’t an accident”.
Since the accused was 19 years old at the time of the crime and is therefore legally considered an adolescent, the trial is taking place before the youth chamber of the district court. The incident happened on the sidelines of a lecture and discussion event with the then AfD chairman Jörg Meuthen on the economic consequences of the Corona crisis.
The defendant denies being a racist or a Nazi
The accused ruled out political motivation in a statement about his defense attorney. He went to the AfD event with like-minded people from a chat group, just out of curiosity, said the 22-year-old. “With the aim of “gazing at ticks””, as the presiding judge reproached him. The man admitted that, but denied being a racist or National Socialist. But that’s what many would call him on the Internet – with full attribution. At the time of the crime he was in the AfD, but then left.
As for the act itself, he said that his group had been expelled from the place by the organizer. As the woman said outside the courtroom, the men attracted attention because of their clothing and combat boots typical of the right-wing extremist scene and an online-only drink called Reichsbrause.
The accused said that he and his friends went back to the car when asked. He felt persecuted and threatened by a group of at least eight people from the black block. From the car he saw a friend being beaten by at least one counter-demonstrator. He panicked, “I was like in tunnel vision”. Then he drove the car – a large pick-up – slowly in his direction. He “only noticed two booms and suddenly there was a person on my hood”. The man who fell on the bonnet explained on the sidelines of the process that as a result he would have to apply for early retirement. According to the center for those affected by right-wing attacks (Zebra), the victims are all traumatized.