Erfurt (dpa/th) – In the trial of a suspected right-wing attack in Erfurt, one of the defendants made allegations against the victims. The presiding judge and a public prosecutor expressed doubts about the details of the presentation at the start of the hearing on Wednesday before the Erfurt district court.
The defendant accused at least two victims of the assault of attacking him first. “I was kicked, often kicked,” said the accused shortly after the trial began. Immediately before, he recognized one of the three victims as an alleged shoplifter. He was unable to defend himself, partly because he was very drunk that evening. The presiding judge said it was unclear to him how the defendant would have clearly identified the man if he consumed as much alcohol as he says himself at the time. A prosecutor made a similar statement.
In the proceedings, the Erfurt public prosecutor accuses a total of nine men and one woman of attacking three Africans in the south-east of Erfurt in the early hours of August 1, 2020. The men were massively racially insulted by the accused. The shouts were intended to help incite others to commit violence, a prosecutor said during the indictment hearing. The attack had sparked nationwide horror at the time. The accused are assigned to the right-wing extremist scene.
