2024-05-04 02:45:55
Short day of trial about the “Everything for Germany” statement by AfD man Björn Höcke. Now it’s a question of whether explosive videos can be used for the procedure.
Does Björn Höcke have to watch on a huge screen in the courtroom in Halle how he took part in a neo-Nazi demonstration in 2010? The prosecution wants this, the defense doesn’t want it – and the court doesn’t want to make a decision until the next day of the trial. On May 14th there will also be a verdict in the trial against the Thuringian AfD state chairman, who is accused of using license plates of a former National Socialist organization.
In 2021, at the end of a speech in Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt, Höcke said “Everything for Germany”, the slogan of the SA (Sturmabteilung) in National Socialist Germany. In order to classify the scope of Höcke’s statement, the public prosecutor and defense have submitted new applications for evidence. The prosecution is concerned, among other things, with three videos:
Höcke chanted on video: “We want to march”
A video from February 2010 from Dresden is intended to serve as evidence. The right-wing extremist Junge Landsgemeinschaft Ost organized the rally to ostensibly commemorate the victims of Allied bombing raids. Höcke can be seen on the video chanting “We want to march”.
This video is intended to play a role in determining the amount of the sentence in the event of a conviction because it could show Höcke’s motives and attitude: The public prosecutor sees it as possible evidence that Höcke is a criminal whose sentence was deliberately passed.
An ARD contribution will also be shown. In this video you can see how Höcke criticized a conviction of Ursula Haverbeck in 2016 as a blatant injustice. The very old Haverbeck is one of Europe’s best-known Holocaust deniers and was sentenced to eleven months in prison shortly before Höcke’s speech after various incidents. Höcke had criticized the fact that some people were put behind bars for years for “so-called opinion crimes”. The court has signaled that he himself is at most threatened with a fine as things stand.
The prosecution also wants to show another video that is much newer, but which raises many legal questions. Can it even be used in this process? Höcke defender Philip Müller protested because it violated the ban on double use.
The video is about a scene on December 12, 2023 in Gera. In Gera, Höcke reported to around 350 supporters about the accusation because of his sentence, which he did not fully enunciate: “Everything for…” was followed by an encouraging hand gesture; the audience completed. According to the public prosecutor’s office, there were 65 “Everything for Germany” comments under a video of the event on YouTube.
A second trial awaits Höcke in Halle
The speech in Gera brought Höcke another charge, which was then initially linked to the proceedings regarding the statement. Because Höcke had replaced his defense attorney at short notice, this happened too quickly for his new legal team and the charges were severed again. And it remains that way: Public prosecutor Benedikt Bernzen withdrew an application to re-combine the proceedings “for procedural economic reasons”.
It is also clear that there will be further proceedings against Höcke at the Chamber in Halle because of this incident, again under the chairmanship of Jan Stengel. And he has to decide with the chamber by the next day of the trial whether the video from Gera can now be shown in the ongoing proceedings. For the public prosecutor’s office, it is evidence of Höcke’s behavior during the crime – from their point of view, it shows that Höcke shows little insight.