German court condemns left-wing group for violent attacks against far-right

A German court on Wednesday convicted a 28-year-old woman and three accomplices of organizing and carrying out brutal attacks against people they considered to be neo-Nazis. country.

The woman, identified only as Lina E. in accordance with strict German privacy laws, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison by a court in eastern Germany’s Dresden, according to DPA, a German news outlet, and MDR, a regional public broadcaster. Three other members of the group — identified as Lennart A., 28; Jannis R., 37; and Philipp M., 28 — received prison sentences ranging from two years and five months to three years and three months.

The case has been much watched in Germany, where authorities have long been accused of failing to prosecute or being slow to prosecute figures linked to right-wing attacks, and especially in the east of the country, where the dominance of far-right groups have long eclipsed a smaller and apparently violent far-left scene. The process also forced progressives to rethink how far the fight against right-wing extremism should go, experts say.

Nancy Faeser, the country’s interior minister, said in a post-conviction statement that “there should be no room for vigilante justice in a democratic state under the rule of law.” She added: “No goal justifies political violence.”

At the heart of the case were six attacks that prosecutors said the loose, unnamed group planned and carried out from 2018 to 2020. Among those beaten by the masked assailants was a right-wing extremist and martial arts fighter who is himself in prison in awaiting trial for his role as leader of a violent right-wing group; men returning from a far-right rally in Dresden; and a man in a hat from a right-wing clothing company, who later denied being a neo-Nazi.

Some of the victims ended up in the hospital with broken bones. One testified that he was traumatized for life. According to prosecutors, there were a total of 13 known victims.

Prosecutors said Lina E. led the group with her partner, who is still wanted by authorities.

Detectives seized Lina E., who was a student at the time, after a second attack on the extremist martial arts fighter in 2019. After the attack, police stopped a speeding VW Golf with stolen license plates; inside they found the original license plates, which showed that it was registered to Lina E.’s mother. From there, police linked Lina E. to other attacks through witness statements, video, DNA evidence and a photo of a crime scene found in a camera at her home.

Investigators arrested her in November 2020 at her home in the city of Leipzig, in northeastern Germany’s state of Saxony. She was charged with causing bodily harm and organizing a criminal gang.

The case has captured the public’s imagination ever since she stepped out of a police helicopter surrounded by heavily armed officers for her arraignment in Karlsruhe, the seat of Germany’s national prosecutors. She was defamed as a violent criminal by some and celebrated as a vigilante by others. “Free Lina E.” graffiti popped up in one district of Leipzig. Some stores put out collection boxes to help her with defense costs.

Hajo Funke, a far-right expert, said the violence the left-wing group was accused of was unusual in East Germany, where the far-right was often the source of brutality in public spaces.

“Especially in Saxony, but also in other states in the east, the far right has a tactical dominance against left-wing actors and even democratically minded citizens in everyday situations,” said Funke. “If you’re actively doing something they don’t like, you’re actually in danger.”

In 2022, the German police attributed 23,493 recorded crimes to the far right in the country. In the same year, 6,976 crimes were attributed to the far left, the lowest number in a decade.

Due to its Nazi past, Germany has strict laws to combat fascism, banning Nazi symbols and speech. Shortly after the country’s reunification three decades ago, neo-Nazis unleashed a wave of violence against migrants, targeting asylum seekers centers, especially in the east. While violence has declined, the political lot of the right has grown. Last year, a far-right group was accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

A parliamentary committee report published in 2013 found that German police and security services had deep-seated biases that allowed a neo-Nazi cell to carry out violent attacks – murders, robberies and bombings – against immigrants for more than a decade without being detected.

The trial against Lina E. and her group took place over almost 100 days in a courtroom in Dresden, the capital of Saxony, under close supervision. Her supporters poured into the visitors’ gallery and cheered as she entered. She greeted them with a heart symbol or a hug gesture.

The plaintiffs’ star witness was a kindergarten teacher and former associate of the group, Johannes D., 30, who confirmed that Lina E. had played a leading role. He testified about the training and organization of the group and admitted to being present at at least one attack as a trousseau. (A court gave him a one and a half year suspended sentence for his part in the crime.)

On the last day of the trial this month, Lina. E. did not insist on her innocence or explain her motives, but thanked her family, her grandmothers and those who had written to her and visited her in prison.

Far-left activists announced that violent demonstrations will take place in Leipzig on Saturday.

But Alexander Deycke, who studies on the far left at the University of Göttingen, said the verdict could lead to self-examination within the left-wing community. “It’s a fundamental contradiction when, on the one hand, you want a non-violent, dominance-free society, but you’re not willing to rule out violence on the way there,” he said.

Dirk Münster, a police officer who heads the state’s special unit for far-left crimes and oversaw the investigation of Lina E.’s group, said he believed a clear guilty verdict was important in this case.

“It has a signaling effect,” he said before the ruling. “We need to recognize that we have a real problem and not one that can be discussed away.”

Many Germans, he said, refused to see left-wing violence as a problem because they generally sympathized with the fight against fascism.

“We are not fighting leftist beliefs,” he said. “We are working against real criminal violence.”