German leftists jailed for string of violent attacks on alleged neo-Nazis

A 28-year-old female German student and three accomplices have been found guilty of carrying out a string of attacks on members of Germany’s neo-Nazi scene, in one of the most high-profile trials of a group of militant leftists since the days of the Baader-Meinhof group.

The woman, who in keeping with Germany’s strict privacy laws was referred to only as “Lina E”, was sentenced on Wednesday to five years and three months in prison amid chaotic scenes at a court in Dresden, eastern Germany.

Three co-accused men aged between 28 and 37 were given sentences ranging from two years and five months to three years and three months, over either membership of or support for a criminal organisation.

At least five more members of the anti-neo-Nazi network, including Lina E’s partner, are believed to be at large and continuing to operate underground, with a report by Germany’s criminal police office attesting the group displayed levels of professionalism last seen in the days of the Red Army Faction.

Colloquially known as the Baader-Meinhof group, the Red Army Faction, was a militant leftwing urban guerrilla network that carried out explosives attacks and assassinations in western Germany from 1970 to the early 90s. Many of its members have since vanished and never faced trial.

The charge sheet against Lina E and her accomplices listed six violent attacks in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony between August 2018 and the summer of 2020 that injured 13 people, two of them in a life-threatening manner.

The victims were mostly well-known rightwing extremists, or people the group perceived to be thus. Leon R, a barkeeper who was charged earlier this month with forming a rightwing extremist outfit, was attacked with hammers, clubs and pepper spray at his bar in the town of Eisenach in late 2019.

In at least one case the victim’s ideological affiliation seemed to have been less clear. Masked attackers beat up a 31-year-old in Leipzig’s Connewitz district in January 2019 because he wore a black hat by Greifvogel, a German clothing brand popular in rightwing extremist circles. In court, the man described the hat as a gift from a friend and insisted that he had long ago turned his back on a neo-Nazi scene he had belonged to as a teenager.

During the trial, which started in September 2021, Kassel-born Lina E became a modern icon in German leftwing and anarchist circles. The graffitied slogan “Free Lina” is a regular sighting on buildings in Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig.

Scenes at the Dresden court were raucous from the moment Lina E entered the room with about 100 supporters cheering her appearance from the galleries and the judge having to appeal for quiet to read his reasoning.

Some of the group’s supporters in the gallery heckled “Fascist friends!”, voicing the allegation that the German justice system has in the past been wilfully blind when considering rightwing militants’ crimes.

The judge himself appeared to acknowledge “deplorable” deficiencies in trials in which neo-Nazi supporters have been let off lightly. He described rightwing extremism as posing the greater threat to the country, but said even Nazis had inalienable rights, as reprehensible as their ideology may be.

His verdict against the main accused was more lenient than the eight years in prison called for by the prosecutor. Nonetheless, leftwing groups have called for protests against the ruling on Saturday, when rallies will be held in Dresden and Leipzig.