The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has arrested a female activist in Bavaria for attacks on right-wing extremists in Budapest. A woman in Thuringia is wanted for a similar offence.
On Monday, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office arrested 29-year-old activist Hanna S. in Nuremberg for alleged membership of a “left-wing extremist criminal organisation”. The arrest warrant had previously been issued by the Federal Court of Justice; following a house search, the German national was taken into custody. Her arrest is connected to protests against the “Day of Honour” in Budapest a year ago. The request came from the State Criminal Police Office in Saxony.
In the Hungarian capital, the members of the alleged organisation are said to have carried out at least five physical attacks on people they considered to belong to the right-wing spectrum. According to the German Public Prosecutor’s Office, Hanna S. took part in two “assaults in public places” on 10 and 11 February 2023 and is therefore accused of dangerous bodily harm. A total of three people were attacked “with batons and other striking tools” and with pepper spray. This left the victims with “multiple bruises and lacerations”, the authorities claim.
Because of similar accusations, the trial against the Germans Tobias E. and Anna M. and the Italian Ilaria Salis began in Budapest at the end of January. Tobias E. admitted to the allegation of association. Another person wanted in the proceedings was arrested in Finland. Gabriele Marchesi, who also comes from Italy, has been refused extradition by the Public Prosecutor’s Office there due to the unacceptable prison conditions in Budapest. In prison in Dresden, the activist, named Maja by her supporters, is awaiting the decision on her extradition.
On Monday evening, around 250 people spontaneously demonstrated against the arrest of Hanna S. in Nuremberg. It is expected that she will also be put on trial in Budapest. The solidarity organisation Rote Hilfe criticises this: “Under the Orbán government, the Hungarian courts are no longer independent. The prisoners are threatened with psychological and physical suffering in custody,’ said a spokeswoman for the organisation.
According to the latest information from the Federal Criminal Police Office, ten more anti-fascists from Germany are being sought in the Budapest complex. Whether Hanna S. is one of those wanted remains unclear at present. Some of those concerned have declared through their lawyers that they want to turn themselves in. The condition was that they should be given a fair trial in Germany instead of Hungary. So far, the judicial authorities have not accepted the offer.
The arrested and wanted persons are said to belong to the Antifa East network, which is also alleged to have organised attacks on right-wing extremists in Germany. The State Criminal Police Office in Saxony is investigating this.
On Monday, the police in Thuringia launched a manhunt against an unknown woman for a similar offence in Erfurt. One day before an attack on two right-wing extremists in January 2023, she is suspected to have observed them. Due to previous incidents and ‘overlaps’ with the attacks in Budapest, the federal prosecutor’s office could take over the investigation, reports regional broadcaster MDR, citing officials in Thuringia and Saxony.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Protest after the arrest in Nuremberg (BASC).
