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FU Berlin: Criticism from many sides
Photo: Schoening / Schöning / IMAGO
The attack on Berlin student Lahav Shapira by a fellow student sparked calls for the suspect to be expelled. The Berlin Senate now wants to make this possible again.
Senate spokeswoman Christine Richter said after a Senate meeting that it should be reintroduced for certain cases. The “Tagesspiegel” had previously reported on the plans.
It is apparently still unclear what the new regulation should look like. “How exactly the higher education law will be changed is still being clarified,” Richter told the “Tagesspiegel”. Science Senator Ina Czyborra (SPD) will speak to the presidents of the universities about this.
According to the information, Berlin is the only federal state without the possibility of exmatriculating students. The red-red-green coalition abolished such sanctions in 2021. The current university law stipulates a maximum of three months' ban on entering the premises.
Shapira was hospitalized in early February with broken bones in his face. A 23-year-old presumably pro-Palestinian fellow student is said to have beaten him until he was hospitalized in the nightlife district in Berlin-Mitte. According to the spokesman, the public prosecutor's office is investigating the student at the Free University of Berlin (FU) for dangerous bodily harm.
The university had been criticized for its slow response to the attack and pro-Palestinian actions. The FU had issued a ban on the young man. However, the Central Council of Jews, among others, called for exmatriculation - which, according to the FU, is currently not possible in such cases for legal reasons.
bbr/dpa