Antifa East | Seven charges against antifascists

The proceedings against anti-fascist Lina E. and two co-defendants were characterized by the extreme severity of the prosecutors and the court. The defendants, from the so-called "Antifa East" group in the proceedings, were accused not simply of bodily harm for alleged acts of violence against neo-Nazis, but of forming a criminal left-wing extremist organization for the purpose of committing such crimes. The total sentence imposed on the Leipzig student by the Dresden Higher Regional Court (OLG) in May 2023 was correspondingly severe: five years and three months in prison. She had already spent two and a half years in pre-trial detention. She was due to begin serving the remainder of her prison sentence at the end of April of this year after the Federal Court of Justice dismissed her appeal against the verdict .

The Federal Prosecutor's Office has now filed charges against seven other people allegedly associated with Lina E., as first reported by MDR on Thursday evening, citing "several people familiar with the events." The authorities also accuse them of, among other things, forming a left-wing extremist criminal organization and causing grievous bodily harm. Four of the accused are already in custody, including E.'s fiancé, Johann G. He was arrested by investigators from the Saxon State Criminal Police Office on a regional train in Thuringia in early November 2024 .

All of the accused are said to belong to "Antifa East." During the Dresden trial, the group was also referred to by the media as the "Hammer Gang" because hammers had been used in some of the crimes under investigation. A Berlin solidarity initiative declared on Friday that this term was a "propaganda tool of the right-wing press" and served to prejudge. It was intended to create an "image of an irrational and unpredictable group whose sole aim is the exercise of violence." The accused were thereby "dehumanized, and political motivation was denied." Antifascism was "not recognized as a legitimate standpoint."

According to MDR, two of the defendants are said to have been involved in an attack on the convicted Eisenach neo-Nazi Leon R. in December 2019. Both are also said to have been involved in the attacks against participants in the right-wing extremist "Day of Honor" in Budapest in February 2023.

One of them was sentenced directly to three years in prison by a Budapest court, which has since been reduced. However, after his extradition to Germany, he has been back in pretrial detention since December 2024 on further charges.

Another suspect, who is also alleged to have been involved in the incidents in Budapest, surrendered to the authorities in January along with six other people.

A man alleged to have been the group's "martial arts trainer" is also already in custody. He was arrested in Berlin in October. He has also been accused by Johannes D., who is cooperating extensively with the authorities as a key witness, of being involved in an attack by the group on the Eisenach neo-Nazi bar "Bull's Eye."

On Friday, eight Berlin lawyers representing defendants confirmed that the Federal Prosecutor's Office had already filed charges against seven anti-fascists with the Dresden Higher Regional Court on May 28, 2025. "It already seems highly doubtful whether these charges can be heard in a fair and constitutional process," they wrote in a joint statement obtained by "nd." They argued that the State Security Department of the Saxony State Criminal Police Office "did not conduct an impartial investigation."

"The actions of the Saxony State Criminal Police Office fundamentally violate the presumption of innocence. Our clients were subjected to a public prejudgment launched by the state."

Berlin lawyers to pass on personal information about accused persons to media representatives

In addition, the lawyers complain that information from the investigation was illegally passed on. "We repeatedly found that individual press outlets had apparently been informed by the Saxony State Criminal Police Office about specific investigation results before we, as defense attorneys, received knowledge of them," they write. In the process, "personal information about our clients was also published."

The lawyers specifically accuse the State Criminal Police Office of having passed on "sensitive information" in a background briefing on May 6, 2025. On that day, the State Security Department of the State Criminal Police Office of Saxony informed numerous journalists "in advance about the expected content of the indictment by the Federal Prosecutor General." The full names of the accused were also disclosed. The defense, however, was unaware at that time "against which individuals the Federal Prosecutor General would bring charges and on what charges." The lawyers state that the indictment "has not yet been disclosed to them and has not been served to date."

According to the lawyers, several of their clients filed criminal charges against Denis Kuhne, the head of state security at the Saxony State Criminal Police Office, with the Federal Prosecutor General on May 14, alleging breach of confidentiality. The defense attorneys stated: "The actions of the Saxony State Criminal Police Office fundamentally violate the presumption of innocence." The victims are thus "exposed to a public prejudgment launched by the state."

Several support groups called on Friday for the release of the accused and the discontinuation of "all proceedings against all anti-fascists." Solidarity Alliance spokesperson Ines Asmann stated: "What awaits us here is a legal-political spectacle: a politically motivated trial as an expression of society's shift to the right, whose sole aim is to criminalize anti-fascist resistance."

Among other things, supporters criticize numerous "excessive house searches" in the defendants' environment and the continued pre-trial detention of individual defendants "as an anticipation of punishment." They also condemn the fact that, as in the trial against Lina E., investigators rely almost exclusively on the testimony of the questionable key witness, Johannes D. He "strategically accused individuals of participating in anti-fascist actions" and thus helped to construct a "criminal organization."