The incident, says Hesse’s Justice Minister Christian Heinz (CDU), was unique in Germany: On May 20, a tied-up man jumped into a jury courtroom Hanau over a table, attacked and injured a prosecutor. Four judicial sergeants overpowered him and prevented anything worse from happening. The minister thanked them for this on Wednesday during a visit to the Hanau regional court.
Heinz said his ministry is now examining what consequences could be drawn from the incident. The prosecutor who was injured in the attack has been back on duty since Monday, but she did not attend the public meeting with the minister.
One consequence of the incident could be structural changes in the courtrooms to at least make such attacks more difficult. However, they will not resort to measures such as those common in Russia and lock the defendants in cages in the courtroom. Heinz said he rejects such “degrading circumstances”. However, it is conceivable to move to larger rooms for proceedings involving defendants who are considered dangerous, and if necessary to use halls outside the court buildings. According to his observations, Heinz said, the number of such procedures “with problematic people” is increasing.
Whether and how a defendant is secured in a trial is at the discretion of the presiding judge. For example, it can be ordered that the defendant must wear handcuffs and ankle cuffs. According to Katrin Burckhardt, President of the Hanau Regional Court, the incident has made her colleagues aware of the dangers: “We are all very shaken.”
During the attack in May, the handcuffed man jumped over a table and hit the prosecutor in the head. According to the public prosecutor’s office and the court, the woman suffered a bruised skull, trauma to the cervical spine and bruises to her hands and arms. Two of the four sergeants were also slightly injured when they brought the attacker to the ground. The trial was adjourned for an hour and the man was locked in a cell, then the verdict continued. The man was sentenced to five years in prison followed by preventive detention for several cases of simple and dangerous bodily harm.
Even during the visit of the Minister of Justice, the four sergeants did not comment on the incident. The reason: You will testify as a witness in another trial regarding the attack against the man.
