Left-wing scene calls for protests: Lina E. sentenced to prison in left-wing extremism trial
Lina E. and three other alleged left-wing extremists are said to have beaten up neo-Nazis over a period of years. Now a court in Dresden has imposed prison sentences of several years.
In the trial of alleged left-wing extremist Lina E. and three other defendants, Saxony's Higher Regional Court in Dresden has handed down multi-year prison sentences.
The court on Wednesday sentenced the 28-year-old to five years and three months in prison on charges including membership of a criminal organization. The co-defendant men received prison sentences of between two years and five months and three years and three months.
The federal prosecution accuses the defendants of brutally beating up people from the right-wing scene in Leipzig, Wurzen and Eisenach between 2018 and 2020. The student Lina E. is considered the head of the group, which is said to have acted as a criminal organization.
According to the court's conviction, the attacks on neo-Nazis were "pre-planned in the long term." According to the court, the "most brutal act" hit a canal worker who was seriously injured in the left-wing alternative district of Leipzig-Connewitz, where E., who is from Kassel, also lived - because he was wearing a cap of a label popular with right-wingers.
According to the verdict, E. and her co-defendants attacked several actual or alleged neo-Nazis with varying degrees of involvement. Among other things, the group attacked a right-wing extremist in Wurzen in October 2018. They kicked and beat the man with fists and telescopic batons.
Prosecutors previously requested eight years in prison for 28-year-old Lina E., and prison sentences of between two years and nine months and three years nine months for the three men, aged 28 to 37. The defense criticized the proceedings as a "political trial" and demanded acquittals.
Lina E. has already been in pre-trial detention for two and a half years on the charges. The others were allowed to enter the court for the hearings as free men.
The defense repeatedly accused the Federal Prosecutor's Office of using the whole circumstances of the trial to place the defendants close to terrorists and of being biased.
The end of the trial took place under heightened security measures. The OLG began admitting people as early as 7:30 am. Spectators and media representatives had to pass through security gates.
At the end of the trial, which lasted almost a hundred days, tempers ran high in the courtroom. The expressions of displeasure and heckling during the several hours of explanation of the verdict grew louder and louder, so that court officials finally intervened. Disruptors were led out of the courtroom, and tumultuous scenes ensued.
Left-wing scene mobilizes: call for protests
In the meantime, Lina E. is seen in the scene as a symbolic figure for alleged state repression. The left-wing scene has called for demonstrations for the convicted woman and her comrades-in-arms - for the day of the pronouncement of the sentence and for the coming Saturday.
On Wednesday, rallies are planned in Dresden and Leipzig. Up to 150 participants plan to march through eastern Leipzig starting at 9 p.m., the assembly authority confirmed Wednesday. The procession is registered under the title "Freedom for all anti-fascists".
According to the police, they are mainly preparing for next Saturday, the so-called "Day X". For this day, the left-wing scene has already called for demonstrations and also acts of violence for two years. Accordingly, the Leipzig police expects the arrival of violent people and is preparing for a large-scale operation.
The city of Leipzig had already announced on Tuesday a restriction of the right of assembly on Saturday and Sunday. According to the publication in the city's official gazette, events are prohibited that relate to the trial of Lina E. and other defendants in terms of content and have not been registered with the assembly authority by Wednesday, midnight.
