Matthias Monroy

Seven people wanted for attacks on right-wing extremists turned themselves in on Monday. Arrest warrants have been issued for them from Germany and Hungary. All of them face trial in Budapest with very high penalties.

Seven Antifa activists turned themselves in to the authorities on Monday. They are all accused of membership of a criminal organisation and joint dangerous bodily harm at the right-wing extremist ‘Day of Honour’ in Budapest two years ago. The detention trials at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe began yesterday in the evening. According to information from ‘nd’, all seven were remanded in custody, although their lawyers had applied for parole on the grounds that they were not a risk of absconding.

According to Hungarian investigators and the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, the wanted persons are alleged to have been involved in attacks on suspected or actual neo-Nazis in Budapest in February 2023. The authorities specified the allegations in a statement on Tuesday.

The Federal Public Prosecutor General’s Office had issued German national arrest warrants for six of those involved, as the authorities made public on Tuesday. Only Zaid A. from Nuremberg is wanted solely on the basis of a European arrest warrant. He had handed himself in to the police in Cologne with his lawyer. The Hungarian judiciary now has 60 days to submit a transfer request. However, the Cologne Higher Regional Court will review the arrest warrant this week.

Luca S. also went to the police in Cologne. Her German arrest warrant was executed, as confirmed by her lawyer Antonia von der Behrens. S. was transferred to the prison in Bielefeld-Brackwede – and thus far away from the centre of her life and her family in Leipzig, von der Behrens criticised to ‘nd’. Paula P., who used to live in Jena and was transferred to Wuppertal-Ronsdorf prison on Monday, and Clara W., who has to spend her pre-trial detention in Hamburg, suffered a similar situation. Nele A., Moritz S. and Paul M. were also heard today, but the decisions have not yet been announced.

If extradited to Hungary, those wanted there face up to 24 years in prison under inhumane conditions. At least that is the charge against non-binary activist Maja T., who was transferred to Budapest in the summer. The Hungarian Public Prosecutor’s Office is demanding 24 years of ‘aggravated imprisonment’ against her.

There is also another arrest warrant for Paul M. for offences he is alleged to have committed in the context of the so-called ‘Antifa Ost’ in Germany.

Lukas Bastisch, lawyer for a 22-year-old arrested woman, said in Hamm: ‘A fair trial is not guaranteed under the right-wing authoritarian government in Hungary.’ His client is facing an excessively long prison sentence and the Hungarian prison conditions also violate minimum human rights standards – a criticism that the Council of Europe also underpinned in a report a few weeks ago.

The legal doubts about possible extraditions are shared by renowned lawyers. At a recent event at the University of Hamburg, both former Italian public prosecutor Cuno Tarfusser and Professor Martin Heger, holder of the Chair of Criminal Law at Humboldt University in Berlin, expressed considerable concerns about the proportionality and rule of law of renditions to Hungary.

The defendants, described by their lawyers as ‘young anti-fascists’ aged between 21 and 27, had previously offered their position – on the condition of a trial in Germany. However, the authorities were not willing to talk. It is possible that the upcoming German parliamentary elections played a role in their decision: as a political official, the Federal Public Prosecutor General reports to the Ministry of Justice. With an expected shift of the German government to the right, the chances of guaranteed prosecution in Germany could decrease.

According to the defence lawyers, the judicial authorities in Germany and Hungary are conducting more than twelve proceedings against various defendants. All of them are related to the incidents at the ‘Day of Honour’ in Budapest. This complex also includes the case of Hanna S., whose trial for attempted murder is due to begin at the Munich Higher Regional Court in February. The municipal court in Budapest has already sentenced a German to prison for the ‘Day of Honour’ events. Further trials and investigations are underway against various nationals, including from Germany, Italy and Albania.

‘The accusation of attempted murder levelled against some of us by the Federal Public Prosecutor General is a politically motivated escalation and can hardly be surpassed in terms of ridiculousness,’ write those who surfaced on Monday in a statement published by a solidarity group. ‘It is obvious that the current anti-fascist movement is not aimed at killing Nazis – and this is also known to the Federal Prosecutor General,’ it continues.

The parents of the seven also published a joint statement on Monday. They emphasise that their children wanted to send a clear signal of de-escalation with their decision to turn themselves in. This also belies the defamatory and prejudicial reporting to date, which has postulated ‘underground radicalisation’ – an allegation for which there has been no evidence whatsoever.

The families are calling for fundamental and human rights to be respected for all of the accused and for pre-trial detention in Germany to be waived, as the wanted persons had made it clear with their appearance that there was no risk of absconding. In addition, there should be no prejudgements and reporting should refrain from mentioning full names and unpixelated photos.

Two of the wanted anti-fascists remain in hiding. The families explain their decision by saying that not all of them are willing to turn themselves in due to the lack of assurances of a trial in Germany. ‘We stand in solidarity with all our co-accused, whether in custody or out there. We wish you much strength for everything that lies ahead of us,’ write those who have surfaced in their statement.

It is doubtful that the wave of repression against the wanted persons will end. Their relatives are also massively affected by this, the solidarity group reminds us: ‘With media and official public searches, over twenty house searches and SWAT deployments, surveillance and attempts at harassment by the constitutional police, the entire range of police and judicial measures that have been used against the left-wing scene for years has been exhausted,’ it said in a statement on Monday.

On Monday evening, solidarity actions were organised in Essen, Nuremberg, Leipzig and Jena for those who had turned up. In Bremen-Vahr, fireworks were set off in front of the police station where one of the suspects was being held, according to the BASC solidarity group.

Published in German in „nd“.

Image: Solidarity actions were organised in various cities on Monday evening in support of those who had turned themselves in after two years (BASC/ X).