Maja
Maja remains in solitary confinement in Hungary. At the beginning of the year, Maja’s lawyers attempted to have the detention converted to house arrest, but the Hungarian courts postponed their decision. In protest against the continuing inhumane conditions of the detention, Maja went on hunger strike. On June 20, the court finally ruled on the request for house arrest, but rejected it. This led to many demonstrations and solidarity actions for Maja throughout Germany. Postcard campaigns were used to put pressure on German and Hungarian politicians to stand up for Maja and bring Maja back to Germany.
After 40 days of hunger strike, Maja’s health deteriorated so badly that after a transfer to a prison hospital Maja had to end the hunger strike.
The trial is currently ongoing. The next trial dates are September 29, October 2, and October 8, at 9:00 a.m. at the State Court in Budapest.
Hanna
Hanna remains in custody in Munich. Her trial ended yesterday, September 26, with a five-year prison sentence. The public prosecutor had demanded a nine-year prison sentence for “attempted murder” and membership in a criminal organization pursuant to § 129. The defense pleaded for acquittal.
Zaid
Zaid was released on bail and allowed to return to his family in Nuremberg, but he must report to the police three times a week. This is to prevent him from fleeing, even though he voluntarily surrendered to the authorities in January.
As Zaid does not have German citizenship, he remains the only defendant in the Budapest trial who still faces extradition to Hungary and thus potential deportation to Syria.
Lina
Lina’s defense team had filed an appeal, which was heard on February 6 at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe. Unfortunately, this did not change the sentence of five years and three months. Lina is currently back in custody.
6 new defendants
On July 6, the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office brought charges against 6 more anti-fascists: Paula, Emmi, Clara, Luca, Nele, and Moritz.
The charges include “attempted murder” and “membership in a criminal organization” under Section 129.
We see the decision to bring the charges in Düsseldorf as a clear political move to make it harder for friends and family to support the defendants and for solidarity work, which has so far been coordinated mainly from eastern Germany. Most of the defendants come from eastern Germany. Their families, friends, and political networks are here, and their lives are centered here. At first, most of them were imprisoned in West German prisons, and now the entire trial is to be heard at the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court. This is quite obviously an attempt to break our solidarity with the defendants and to make solidarity-based trial support very difficult and expensive. The six-hour drive from eastern Germany to Düsseldorf is an unacceptable imposition on friends and family.
And it is not only the location of the trial, but also the charges themselves that are clearly politically motivated, fitting in all too well with a larger trend that has been observable since well before the last federal election: Anti-fascism is being stylized as a criminal offense, and the trial of the six defendants and the murder charge are intended to create as bloody and dangerous an image of anti-fascism as possible in the public eye – a clearly politically motivated escalation on the part of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. This becomes clear when we remember that the original arrest warrant against the defendants was not issued for attempted murder. It was the Federal Prosecutor’s Office that added this charge.
Our response to this deliberate political escalation and delegitimization of necessary anti-fascism can only be solidarity. Take part in actions, write letters to our imprisoned comrades, donate money for the defendants’ legal costs and the travel expenses of their supporters.
We will not be deterred by the German state from showing solidarity with our friends and comrades! Anti-fascism is and remains necessary, and our solidarity with our courageous comrades remains unbroken.