A jail term for a far-left extremist who took part in violent attacks on people she deemed to be far-right has caused an uproar on both the left and right of German politics.
Lina E was given a sentence of five years and three months – but was also told she is now free pending an appeal, having been in custody since 2020.
The judge, Hans Schlüter-Staats, said Lina E would be allowed out pending the result of her appeal. She is unwell and has had to hand in her identity card and passport.
Delivering his verdict, the judge said that “opposing right-wing extremists is a respectable motive”, but the use of force was only for the state, and her actions were still “serious criminal acts”. He criticised her defence lawyers’ argument that the case was politically motivated.
Lena E was seen to be the ring leader of a far-left group that waged a violent campaign against its ideological opponents. Her group, known as the hammer gang, have carried out multiple attacks using baseball bats, hammers and iron bars, targeting alleged “Nazis” pubs and even set upon attendees at a ceremony commemorating the bombing of Dresden.
Sabine Volk, a researcher on the far right from the University of Passau, said that the crimes committed by the gang were horrible but that there appeared to be a “power imbalance” in eastern Germany against the far left.
“In radical left circles, there’s this perception and narrative that the state isn’t doing anything against the neo-Nazi scene, and that’s why they have to take over their duties,” she told the BBC. “It’s not entirely true, but it’s not far-fetched either.”
The Homeland Party are not surprised that there is uproar surrounding this case; this woman has orchestrated multiple violent attacks which, had they been carried out by hard-line Islamists or any group deemed to be “far-right”, they’d be considered terrorists!
It’s also noteworthy that the judge and the researcher quoted above haven’t wholeheartedly condemned the accused’s actions.
Regarding the “power imbalance” in former East Germany against the far-left, maybe that’s because people remember the stranglehold the Soviets had on them for four decades, which will still be in living memory for those over 40.
A barren communist existence, family members informing on one another, gulags, secret police, are we surprised people are sceptical of the motives of anyone on the far-left? It’s not like “the hammer gang” are putting their collective minds at ease, either.
Homeland has always known that it is the far-left who are violent; we would welcome a crackdown on the aggressive behaviour of these people, an aggressiveness Western liberal democracies have encouraged to the point which they think is justified.
