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At the trial for the right-wing terrorist attack in Halle, eastern Germany, the defendant Stephan Balliet was sentenced to life imprisonment with subsequent pre-trial detention.
The judges found the 28-year-old guilty on Monday in Magdeburg of two murders and attempted murder in many other cases and also determined the particular gravity of the guilt. This means that early release after 15 years is almost impossible. An appeal may be lodged with the Federal Court of Justice against the sentence.
It was a “cowardly attack,” presiding judge Ursula Mertens said when the verdict was announced Monday. The defendant had relativized his actions and motives in many places. The man reacted to the verdict with a blank face and began to take notes.
The largest court case in the state
On October 9, 2019, German Stephan Balliet, 28, attempted to storm the synagogue in the city of Halle in East Germany on the most important Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, and provoke a massacre. He threw incendiary devices and explosives and fired at the access door, but did not enter the premises. In front of the synagogue, he murdered 40-year-old passerby Jana L. and at a nearby kebab shop, 20-year-old Kevin S.
In his escape, the man shot police officers, drove his getaway car towards a black man and shot a man and a woman in a town near Halle after they refused to give him their car. In a workshop, the then 27-year-old blackmailed a taxi that the police were able to locate with the help of the taxi driver. Later, the police arrested him. The Saxon Anhalter confessed the fact.
With the verdict, Mertens and the other four judges followed the demands of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the accessory accusation. The process is considered the largest criminal case in the history of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. For security and space reasons, the OLG had moved the hearing to the state’s largest courtroom in Magdeburg.
23 lawyers involved
In 25 days of trial, the court questioned a total of 79 witnesses and 15 experts. 45 survivors and grieving families joined the accessory prosecution and were represented by 23 attorneys. The survivors’ final conferences alone had lasted three days into the trial, and many had spoken at that time or earlier on the witness stand. Almost all had reported serious psychological consequences of the crime.
Unlike detention, pretrial detention is not a punishment for a crime. Its purpose is to protect the general public from criminals who have already served their actual sentence but are still considered dangerous.
