updates
Police raise serious allegations
Left demo in Leipzig escalated
6/3/2023 11:32 p.m
Despite a ban, demonstrators are going out in Leipzig to protest the verdict against left-wing extremist Lina E. It begins peacefully and ends with beatings and projectiles. The police, on the other hand, vehemently opposed it. There is criticism for the officials, arrest warrants for a few participants.
After the verdict against Lina E. for left-wing extremist acts of violence, there were renewed clashes between the police and demonstrators on Saturday. Firecrackers, stones, bottles flew, even an incendiary device is said to have been thrown at a police officer. The police surrounded some of the demonstrators. They also positioned water cannons, but they were not used, according to a police spokesman.
As the demonstration progressed, officials began to take the identities of some of the surrounded demonstrators, a dpa reporter reported. The process dragged on until early Sunday morning. The demonstrators are led individually out of the group on Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse. Headlights were set up. According to the police, there were also several minors among those arrested who should be checked first. There have been isolated attempts to break out. According to the police, around 300 participants in the demonstration at Heinrich-Schütz-Platz are in a “police measure”. The demonstrators are accused of serious breaches of the peace and physical attacks on emergency services.
After the demonstration, a magistrate issued five arrest warrants by the evening. A police spokeswoman said on Saturday evening. Five men between the ages of 20 and 32 were affected. You took part in the demonstration at Alexis-Schumann-Platz. According to the spokeswoman, they are accused of breaching the peace.
First it was quiet
The meeting started peacefully, but then escalated. Several officers were hit and injured by stones and other projectiles, a police spokesman said on Saturday evening. Our forces are repeatedly attacked and pelted with stones/pyrotechnics,” the police wrote on Twitter. Everyone there is appealed to distance themselves from criminals and to behave peacefully. “Bystanders are asked to leave or avoid the area. ”
Left-wing circles were mobilized nationwide for the demonstration on Saturday. The reason is the verdict against Lina E. and three co-defendants for attacks on alleged or actual neo-Nazis, in which several people were injured, some seriously. The 28-year-old was sentenced to five years and three months in prison by the Dresden Higher Regional Court on Wednesday.
Despite the final ban on a large “Day X” demonstration by the radical left-wing scene, the police were present in large numbers in the city. The ban had been confirmed by both the Leipzig Administrative Court and the Saxon Higher Administrative Court. A constitutional complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court was also unsuccessful. She was not accepted for decision.
After the riots, the left criticized the actions of the police. Your head of parliament in the Saxon state parliament, Marco Böhme, accused the police on Twitter of having allowed the situation to escalate with the “actual ban”. He also criticized the demonstrators for being held for too long. The people had been held for three hours, said Böhme.
Probably 23 officers injured
The left-wing member of the state parliament Kerstin Köditz criticized the decision not to let the demonstrators go. “De-escalation looks different,” said the politician on Twitter. The left-wing alliance “Dresden Nazifrei” described the behavior of the police as “martial”. There had already been riots in Connewitz on Friday evening. Masked men had attacked police officers.
After the initially peaceful course of a meeting on Wiedebachplatz in the Connewitz district, stones were thrown out of a crowd of up to 700 hooded people and pyrotechnics were ignited. Barricades made of rubbish bins and construction site barriers burned both there and in side streets. The police used tear gas and, according to their own statements, objects were thrown at them from the roofs of houses. Most of the burning barricades were extinguished shortly after midnight, some with the help of water cannons.
According to initial findings, 23 officers were injured. One of them was treated in the hospital. A journalist was reportedly attacked and slightly injured by an unknown person. 17 police vehicles were damaged. Eight vehicles were set on fire, including residents’ cars, sources said. Damage “in the high five-digit sum” was caused at a bank branch, the police said. It is determined, among other things, because of serious breaches of the peace. According to the information, five suspects were arrested and three people were taken into custody.