The Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke has to go to court in Saxony-Anhalt. The Halle regional court admitted an indictment by the Halle public prosecutor’s office to the main hearing for the use of license plates of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations. The court announced this on Wednesday.
Its spokesman also said that the public prosecutor’s office had filed an immediate complaint against the court’s decision that Höcke should face the district court in the first instance.
Höcke speech in Merseburg
The public prosecutor’s office filed charges in June. This is about a speech that Höcke gave at his party’s election campaign event on May 29, 2021 in Merseburg. In this he used the forbidden slogan of the Sturmabteilung (SA) of the NSDAP, “Everything for Germany”.
Höcke already reacted to the admission of the charges on Twitter, which its operator now calls “X”. He wrote that the trial represented a Germany that had lost its compass. “Knife murderers” were walking around freely, while “patriotic opposition members” were being brought to justice because of a sentence taken out of context.
The location of the trial is still unclear
Contrary to what the public prosecutor’s office originally requested, the proceedings should not take place in the regional court, but rather in the Merseburg district court. The regional court justifies this by saying that the proceedings should not be given a “special significance” simply because of Höcke’s “level of fame”.
However, the public prosecutor’s office filed an immediate complaint against this decision, said a spokesman for the Halle MDR SAXONY-ANHALT regional court on Wednesday. The public prosecutor’s office therefore favors a trial before the regional court. According to the spokesman, the higher regional court in Naumburg will make a decision on this.
Keyword: District Court vs Regional Court
In Germany, criminal cases can be heard in the first instance before a local court, a regional court or a higher regional court. To put it simply, whether the district court is “still” responsible or the higher regional court “already” depends on the crime, the expected level of punishment and the importance of the case. In the Höcke case, the public prosecutor’s office can appeal against the referral to the district court; The decision is final for the defendant.
If the proceedings start as decided at the Merseburg District Court, they can continue after an appeal in the second instance at the Halle Regional Court. If the proceedings were to start at the regional court, there would be a factual decision against which Höcke could then only appeal with an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice.
Immunity against Höcke revoked
According to MDR information, the investigation by the Mühlhausen public prosecutor’s office against Höcke is said to be about a post on the social media platform Telegram from mid-October 2022. The same prosecutor had proceedings against Höcke were dropped around a year and a half ago. There it was initially about the suspicion of incitement after a Facebook post against the sea rescuer Carola Rackete.