In the rocker scene it is part of the code of honor not to speak to the police or the judiciary. So it will be a completely silent first day of proceedings before the Munich I regional court, which wants to clarify whether the three defendants suddenly attacked and beat up a member of the Hells Angels in a fast food restaurant in October 2019. Even a taciturn police informant called as a witness does not shed any light on the matter. And whether the defendants actually belong to a rocker group is a completely different matter.
The fact is that a dispute has been simmering for years between the brothers Ersin and Erdinc D. as well as Hannachi Z. and the rockers from the Hells Angels. This culminated in Hells Angel Khaled B. ramming a knife into both brothers’ stomachs at the “Istanbul Nights” 2015 in the Crowns Club on Rosenheimer Strasse. “My client almost died,” says Wolfgang Bendler, Ersin D’s defense attorney.
Khaled B. was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. Dozens of people wearing robes crowded the courtroom at the time, and there was almost a fight in the corridors. “The main hearing escalated everything even more,” says Bendler.
What followed was the attack in the McDonald’s on Regerstrasse near the Ostfriedhof. Ersin D. is said to have struck his fist with a handle from a weight machine from the gym. Hannachi Z. and Erdinc D. are said to have kicked the man lying on the ground. Then they ran away.
An employee called the police. But when she arrived at the restaurant, the perpetrator, victim and companion had disappeared. The whole thing would have come to nothing if an informant hadn’t tipped off the police. This reproduced the facts as they can be seen on a video that was filmed by the surveillance camera in McDonald’s. The video is said to have circulated in perpetrator and victim circles. It will have to be clarified in court whether the defendants can be identified based on the video.
Now a police officer is supposed to report on the interrogation of the ominous informant. But apart from the sentence “I don’t have permission to speak on this” and ostentatious silence, there isn’t much. “The witness is fooling us,” says Erdinc D’s defense attorney Julia Weinmann, “the police’s work was not done properly.”
The lawyers encourage a conversation that the 3rd Criminal Chamber conducts in public. Helmut Mörtl, Hannachi Z.’s defense attorney, says the crime happened more than four years ago and that the defendants are more likely to be the victims. In 2020 there was said to have been another attack by the Hells Angels: a black van ran over Erdinc D. and Hannachi Z. on the open road. The perpetrators then stabbed Erdinc D.. Since then, the then Hells Angels President Murat S. has gone into hiding and with him part of the rockers. “You are on the run, so there are no charges yet,” says the prosecutor. And he also explains that vigilantism is not tolerated here, “that’s not how our society works.”
A deal fails because the public prosecutor does not see a suspended sentence for Ersin D. and Hannachi Z., probably also due to their previous convictions. The defendants are “apparently deeply connected to rocker crime,” the Interior Ministry wrote in a statement to the court about the undercover agent. The D. brothers see it differently. There can be no question of a “rocker war”, especially since they do not belong to any group, they tell the SZ. The dispute with the Hells Angels arose from a private matter. A verdict is expected in mid-March.