Police boiler in Leipzig: unsustainable conditions and legal consequences!

Police boiler in Leipzig: unsustainable conditions and legal consequences!

On June 3, 2023, a controversy around a large police kettle took place in the Heinrich-Schütz-Park in Leipzig, which still causes discussions today. According to ND-Aktuell were enclosed by the police and held for up to eleven hours after a planned demonstration due to feared violence was prohibited. The protesters were directed against the restriction of freedom of assembly.

The police officers justified the encirclement with individual outbreaks of violence that took place during mobilization. The conditions during the levy were questionable: the wrapped goods without drinking water and food and had to do their nomotive in the bushes. A total of 1,537 investigations against unidentified persons were initiated, whose allegations are very controversial.

legal Situation and critical votes

Two years after the incident it turned out that 861 of the investigative proceedings were discontinued because the allegations proved to be unfounded. Saxony's Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) said that in many cases the fact, illegality or guilt could not be determined. At the moment, 445 procedures are still being processed or are available to the public prosecutor's office. It is frightening that in less than 1.5% of the cases, 19 cases are actually charged.

A striking example from these procedures is the case of a 25-year-old activist who was charged with attempted murder and assault, but was finally released after six months of pre-trial detention. The district court opened the arrest warrant because there was no urgent suspicion. Most of the wrapped are classified by the constitutional protection authorities as left -wing extremists, and the data of all 1322 criminal affected people were passed on by the Saxon police to secret services in order to be saved for five years. This practice caused harsh criticism from data protectionists and lawyers.

critical judgments and reactions

A current process in front of the Düsseldorf administrative court illuminates similar problems. Over 300 participants, including 38 minors, were encircled as part of a demonstration. The conditions were also inhuman here, since mobile toilets were not made available and the trapped circumstances had to endure. The administrative court rated the encirclement in five cases as lawful, justified by the behavior of masked persons in the block that disturbed the assembly.

However, the measures were classified as illegal for two other plaintiffs because they were outside the criticized block. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which questioned the responsibility of the administrative court in the run-up to the processes, argued that the police kettle is a repressive measure, which is why the district court was responsible. The Higher Administrative Court of Münster rejected the police's complaint in November 2022, which further illustrates the legal uncertainties about such measures.

The Leipzig case, as well as the events in Düsseldorf, also highlighted the critical situation of freedom of assembly and the measures practiced by the police. Requirements of politicians such as the left-wing MP Jule Nagel, the immediate deletion of the stored data, show the need for more transparency and respect for fundamental rights.