Mönchengladbach (dpa / lnw) – After an acquittal for three music-making activists, the judiciary has to deal again with a protest action in August 2021 in the Garzweiler opencast lignite mine. At the request of the Mönchengladbach public prosecutor’s office, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court overturned the judgments of the district court and referred them back to Mönchengladbach-Rheydt for a new hearing, a spokesman for the court said on Monday. A date has not yet been set.
In March, the district court acquitted three climate activists of trespassing. A 72-year-old man and two women (69, 61) from Nienburg and Munich were accused. You and more than 50 other activists from the musicians’ action group Lebenslaute got into the opencast mine on August 15, 2021 via the Wanlo ramp south of Mönchengladbach.
The district court justified the surprising acquittal with the basic rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of expression. The accused exercised their basic rights peacefully, without endangering the operations and employees of the opencast mine operator RWE.
