Two left-wing radicals who had gone underground in Venezuela turned themselves in for a deal with the judiciary. Almost exactly 30 years to the day after the act, the negotiated verdict was handed down.
In the trial against the left-wing radical activists Thomas Walter and Peter Krauth, the Berlin Higher Regional Court delivered its verdict on Tuesday. As expected, the presiding judge imposed a two-year suspended prison sentence for the alleged bombing attempt on a deportation prison construction site. This had previously been agreed upon by the Federal Prosecutor General’s Office and the defense attorneys of the two men, who had received political asylum in Venezuela. Part of this agreement between the parties involved in the trial were also confessions from the defendants.
Walter and Krauth are now over 60 years old. Together with Bernhard Heidbreder, who died of cancer in 2021, they went underground immediately after the act on April 11, 1995, because a police patrol had discovered their preparations at the planned prison in Berlin-Grünau and thus thwarted the attack.
The short trial lasted only four days – including the announcement of the verdict on Tuesday. The day before, a police witness had been heard. The now 49-year-old had been driving along on patrol as an intern 30 years ago and testified about a VW Passat and a Ford Transit that had been conspicuously parked near the prison on Easter night.
In the vehicles, eight filled gas cylinders, other bottles with a flammable liquid, and a detonator – apparently built into a Smarties box – were found. Also – according to the former police intern’s estimate – ten flyers stating, in essence: “Warning, explosive danger – The K.O.M.I.T.E.E.”
Under the same acronym, the group had carried out an arson attack six months earlier on a military recruitment office in Bad Freienwalde to protest Germany’s support of the Turkish war against the PKK in Kurdistan. However, this act has been subject to the statute of limitations since 2015. In the Berlin-Grünau case, the Public Prosecutor ensured further prosecution through a legal maneuver: it no longer pursued the preparation or execution of a thwarted attack, but rather the conspiracy to do so. For this, the statute of limitations does not expire for 40 years.
On Monday, Lukas Theune, who represented Peter Krauth in the trial, criticized this in his closing argument. He pointed out that Section 30 of the Criminal Code, which governs incitement to commit a crime, was made into law in 1943 by Adolf Hitler through a decree. Instead, the Public Prosecutor could have used another paragraph from the Criminal Code to prosecute Heidbreder, Walter, and Krauth: the preparation of an explosive crime. In that case, the statute of limitations would also have expired after 20 years. Theune therefore pleaded for an acquittal for his client.
Benjamin Derin, the defense attorney for Thomas Walter, also referred in his plea to the legal constructs by which the German judiciary had relentlessly pursued the group for three decades. In other cases with significantly more weight, the Higher Regional Court had shown considerably less “determination” in securing a conviction.
The Public Prosecutor refrained from such excursions in court. The K.O.M.I.T.E.E. was clearly a terrorist organization, according to its closing statement on Monday. However, the German chief prosecutor also acknowledged that the group had not intended to harm anyone. But because the explosive effect at the deportation prison would have been considerable – evidenced by a police video of a test detonation shown on the last day of the trial – an acquittal was out of the question.
Walter and Krauth waived their right to a final statement on Monday. Two hours later, the two reported to the property room of the State Criminal Police office to retrieve some of their personal belongings that had been confiscated from the vehicles 30 years ago.
Now, the political reckoning with the attacks lies ahead – both the brutal migration regime and the war against the Kurds remain burning issues today. Thomas Walter is already scheduled to appear on Wednesday at an event hosted by Migrantifa in Berlin. “What examples of practical resistance exist in the past of leftist movements and still today?” is one of the evening’s questions.
Also still unclear: What does the acronym K.O.M.I.T.E.E. even stand for? The judge, with a final amused question, also wanted to know this on Monday. Both defendants refused to answer. Walter said he would comment on it at a later time, according to statements to “nd.”
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Walter and Krauth in Venezuela.
