A lay judge in the so-called Mafia trial in Duisburg was released from participating in the proceedings - because he fell asleep several times in the courtroom.

A spokesman for the regional court confirmed the FAZ's decision on Friday.

The defendants' defense lawyers had filed a petition for bias against the lay judge after he had slept so deeply during the questioning of a key witness that he had to be woken up.

David Klaubert

Editor in the section “Germany and the World”.

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During the trial shortly before Christmas, one of the lawyers had also read out a "sleep protocol" that the lay judge had nodded off for at least six trial days since the beginning of December, sometimes for minutes.

In a statement, the lay judge admitted to having fallen asleep several times.

The public prosecutor's office followed suit with the bias application.

In their decision, the three professional judges of the 4th Major Criminal Chamber followed the argument that the incidents could cause the accused to fear that the lay judge was not dealing sufficiently with the matter. 

The defense of one of the accused had also filed a petition for bias against the presiding judge, stating that the judge should have noticed that the lay judge was sleeping.

This request has now been rejected.

In the trial, which began in October 2020, a total of 14 men are charged with international cocaine trafficking.

The public prosecutor's office also accuses five of them of belonging to the 'ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia.

Originally 91 negotiation days were planned for the process until the end of this year.

Also because there were delays due to corona diseases and the quarantine of a defendant, appointments are now set until December of this year.

As is usual with such large proceedings, in addition to the three professional judges and the two lay judges, a supplementary judge and three supplementary lay judges have also been present since the start of the negotiations.

One of them has now moved up - so that the process can continue on Monday as planned with the 75th day of negotiations.