Action office Middle Rhine

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mittelrhein Action Office (formerly Action Front Mittelrhein) was one of the supraregional coordination and organization offices and a networking platform for the militant neo-Nazi free comradeships . Since 2012, with an interruption between 2017 and 2018, there have been three main proceedings against alleged 26 members before the Koblenz district court for the formation of a criminal organization , assault , serious breach of the peace and the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations . The third main proceedings were closed in September 2019.

General and history

In 2004 the “Central Rhine Action Front” appeared publicly for the first time. When it became clear that this could be banned, Christian Häger founded the “Mittelrhein Action Office” in 2006. The so-called "Brown House" - based on the building of the same name of the Nazi party headquarters in Munich - in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler , which gained national fame, served as the headquarters . It was inhabited by three tenants from the end of 2009, at times without a lease , and evacuated by August 15, 2012.

According to the 926 page indictment, the “action office” acted like a free comradeship . Its members organized demonstrations , fought the Antifa , participated in paramilitary training camps and gave political training . They also tried to network neo-Nazis from the Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler and North Rhine-Westphalia area. That is why every three months they invited friends of their comradeship leaders to a secret meeting, the so-called “Führer Thing ”, in the “Brown House”. According to the indictment, the “action office” sought “the establishment of a state based on the National Socialist model” and “the elimination of the free and democratic basic order ”.

Investigations

In mid-2010, there were increasing indications that the “Mittelrhein Action Office” was a criminal organization . The subsequent investigations by the Koblenz public prosecutor's office turned out to be "lengthy and extremely difficult", because the members strictly sealed themselves off from the outside world. On the morning of March 13, 2012, 300 police officers, including a special task force , searched the “Brown House” and other apartments in Rhineland-Palatinate , North Rhine-Westphalia , Thuringia and Baden-Württemberg . At that time, the Koblenz public prosecutor's office was investigating a total of 33 people - many with ties to the NPD - including a total of 24 people against whom an arrest warrant had been issued prior to the searches . During the searches, the police found several baseball bats , twins with steel balls, handguns without live ammunition, swastika flags and similar propaganda material .

Procedure

On August 20, 2012, charges were brought against a total of 26 people from the vicinity of the Mittelrhein Action Office before the 12th large criminal chamber of the Koblenz Regional Court . They were accused of forming a criminal organization , assault , serious breach of the peace and using unconstitutional symbols. On November 22, 2013, the LG Koblenz sentenced two of the defendants to suspended sentences of 21 and 18 months respectively. Two other defendants were also found guilty, but the LG refrained from imposing a penalty. All four made a confession and distanced themselves from the right-wing scene. In early 2014, the case against two defendants was dropped.

During the proceedings there was a rigorous delay strategy on the part of the up to 52 criminal defense lawyers and their clients with around 500 requests for bias , 240 requests for evidence and 400 requests for the course of the proceedings. By the end, the trials of nine defendants had been separated from the main trial, two judges declared biased and another retired. On October 29, 2013, January 30 and March 13, 2014 there were stink attacks in the meeting room, the first time with expired garlic oil and the third time probably with butyric acid . In all three cases the investigations were closed. The Nürburgring trial against the former Rhineland-Palatinate Finance Minister Ingolf Deubel was also affected by the first attack . Because the presiding judge reached the age limit at the end of June 2017 and no verdict was foreseeable by then, the 12th Major Criminal Chamber of the LG Koblenz decided on May 2, 2017 to suspend the proceedings for an indefinite period due to the procedural obstacle of the excessively long duration of the proceedings .

The Koblenz Public Prosecutor successfully appealed against this decision. On October 15, 2018, the proceedings against the remaining 17 defendants were resumed with unchanged indictment before the LG Koblenz. Many applications were announced right from the start.

On November 21, the proceedings were interrupted again after an occupation complaint was granted. The negotiating criminal chamber was occupied as a general criminal chamber, but should have been occupied as a state protection chamber . According to the business distribution plan, another criminal chamber was responsible for this. The proceedings were resumed on February 26, 2019 before the 12th criminal chamber of the LG Koblenz.

Leading officials

The following people are known as ringleaders :

The links to the NPD are also publicly problematized through personnel overlaps . Observers assume that the procedure could also provide important information for a renewed NPD ban procedure .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eight suspensions, three judgments and one death - main proceedings against "Aktionbüro Mittelrhein" suspended SWR September 4, 2019
  2. ^ "Action Office Middle Rhine" Mammoth trial against neo-Nazis in Koblenz stopped - right-wing extremists cheer , by Kira Ayyadi, Belltower.News September 6, 2019
  3. ↑ The mammoth neo-Nazi trial before the end , look to the right on September 4, 2019
  4. ↑ a b c Did "Action Office" hunt leftists? In: Rhein-Zeitung . March 13, 2012, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b c Jörg Diehl: mammoth trial against right-wing extremists: two prosecutors, 52 defense lawyers. In: Spiegel Online . September 5, 2012, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  6. ^ Action for eviction from the Brown House. In: Rhein-Zeitung . June 20, 2012, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Eviction: Braunes Haus is again free from Nazis. In: Rhein-Zeitung . August 16, 2012, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  8. ^ Comradeships met for the "Führer Thing" at Weinbergstrasse 17. In: Rhein-Zeitung . August 3, 2012, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  9. ↑ a b Strike against the right: Special task force storms "Braunes Haus" in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler. In: General-Anzeiger . March 13, 2012, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Bernd Dörries: Raids in the right scene: Action against the Brown House. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . March 13, 2012, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  11. ↑ a b c d Arno Frank : Koblenz: This is how the new trial against the "Mittelrhein Action Office" begins. In: Spiegel Online . October 15, 2018, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  12. ↑ First verdicts in the Koblenz neo-Nazi trial: "That was a lesson for me." In: Rhein-Zeitung . November 23, 2013, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Stink bomb in Koblenz neo-Nazi trial: investigations against 44-year-olds stopped. In: Rhein-Zeitung . November 9, 2015, accessed October 23, 2018 .
  14. ^ Kerstin Rueber-Unkelbach: Action Office Middle Rhine 2.0 burst. In: Criminal proceedings - in Koblenz and elsewhere. November 21, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Kerstin Rueber-Unkelbach: Action Office Mittelrhein 3.0 restart at the end of February 2019. In: Criminal proceedings - in Koblenz and elsewhere. December 4, 2018, accessed December 4, 2018 .
  16. ↑ The process against the "Action Office Middle Rhine" starts all over again. Spiegel Online, February 26, 2019, accessed on the same day.