GERMANY: AAP investigation dropped
01 January 2001
After three years of criminal proceedings by the Bavarian regional police authority (LKA) and public prosecutor into the Antifaschistische Aktion Passau (AAP) on the grounds of "formation of a criminal organisation" under the German equivalent of the Terrorist Act (see Statewatch vol 9 no 5), the public prosecutor in Munich has declared an end to the investigations. Members of Antifaschistische Aktion in Passau and Berlin. They were subject to extensive surveillance, interception of telecommunications and confiscation of personal property and are demanding compensation procedures for the victims and the immediate destruction of personal data which was collected during the seven years of the operation, which was initiated to investigate the "anti?fascist spectrum" in the region.
On 29 December 2000, Manfred Wick, the public prosecutor, informed the 39 accused that proceedings against them were being dropped under paragraph 170 of the Strafprozessordnung (German Criminal Procedures Act) due to a lack of evidence. Their "activism in trying to achieve these aims [eg "the fight against the existing capitalist world order"] was largely located within the legal spectrum", he said. Claiming to have evidence that people from the anti-fascist movement were forming a terrorist organisation, the Bavarian LKA searched 28 houses in seven German cities in May 1998, confiscating £20,000 worth of computers, monitors, printers and other personal belongings. 39 people were charged under paragraph 129/129a of the German Criminal Code with "the formation of a criminal organisation". However, the prosecution was strongly criticised for lacking specific charges. Three years after the searches and seven years after the initial investigation started (an operation which the AAB estimates has cost millions of Marks) only seven criminal offences could be linked to specific individuals. These include criminal damage, intimidation and coercion.
The anti?fascist groups argue that the accusations under paragraph 129/129a served no purpose other than to gather intelligence and intimidate activists in a region in which the far-right is prominent (Passau is the homeland of the extreme Deutsche Volksunion), which hosts its annual party conference there). According to the defence campaign, the investigation has put many victims under severe psychological as well as physical strain through continuous intimidation, long-term interception of communications and confiscation of personal belongings irrelevant to the investigation.
Press Release Antifaschistische Aktion Berlin und Passau, 11.1.01; Passauer Neue Presse 30.12.01. For more information contact the AAB, Weydinger Str. 14?16, 10178 Berlin, 0049?30?2756?0756, aab@antifa.de