Th., June 25th 1996
According to assumptions by the 17 accused presumed members of the Goettinger Autonomous Antifa (M), the trial against them will probably be called off. The prosecutors office of the Lüneburg district court, the general prosecuting attorneys office Celle and the lawyers of the accused agreed to call of the trial under conditions. According to these conditions, the accused have to sign a statement in which they declare to "consider" the regulations of the law on demonstrations in any future actions and agree to transfer the amount of 3.000 Marks to a concentration-camp-memorial. The agreement provides for the computers that were confiscated during various police-raids to be returned to the accused and all confiscated material and press releases by the Antifa (M) which were confiscated to be handed to the Hamburg Institute for social research (Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung). Furthermore, not only the main case but also all followup-cases against 17 other people are to be called off. The accused had been charged of forming a criminal organisation and several offences connected to antifascist demonstrations. especially the regular militant "black blocks" during Antifa (M) demonstrations had caused some sensation. Earlier charges like advertising terrorist organisations had already been dropped. To strengthen the charges 13.929 telephone calls had been recorded, observational videos and surveillance protocalls made over a period of several years. Earlier offers to call off the trial under the condition that the accused should principally dissociate themselves from the politics of the Antifa (M) or abstain from any "organisation of so-called black-blocks" had been rejected by the defendants. One of them explained why the diverged from the demands of the Antifa (M) to close the case unconditionally in an interview with the daily leftist newspaper Junge Welt which appeared on Thursday: "The group of defendants was very heterogeneous, it would possibly have split if we had not accepted the conditions now." He explained that one major factor for the yielding of the prosecutors was the alliance-politics of the defendants who received broad solidarity from the Grünen (green party), unionist and even the middle-class spectre.
Th., June 27th & Sa., June 29th 1996
Around 70 people participated on Thursday in a demonstration in Bremen against the lasting custody of one presumed member of the illegal leftist magazine radikal and against the conditions under which two other presumed members were released from custody. Both had to pay a bail of 20.000 Marks and are not allowed to keep contact to one another or any other of the accused persons in the radikal-proceedings. "Any communication within the social and political context of those affected is thereby destroyed" said one speaker during the demonstration. The demonstrators demanded the release of the imprisoned Frank G. and sent greetings to the "still fleeing Mattes". The warrants against four others accused which were first also released from custody against 20.000 Mark bail have now been abolished. According to the Koblenz prosecutors office, the accused, who had been arrested during a large strike against the magazine on the 13th of July last year, are not "in risk of escape". The case had been transfered to the Koblenz prosecutors office by the federal prosecutors and is now of "minor importance". The case against the four others accused, who are blamed for "membership in the criminal organisation radikal" is to remain "chief case".
News by A-Infos (D)
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