Concerned Asta: The presumption of innocence also applies to Franco A.

This hypothesis is daring: If the alleged law student Franco A. were to stand in court on suspicion of having planned a terrorist attack out of left-wing extremist sentiments, the latest warning call from the AStA at Goethe University would not have been received. Now Bundeswehr Lieutenant A. is accused of being a right-wing extremist who committed an act of violence under a false identity and wanted to shift the blame on refugees - which is why the student representatives' awareness of the dangers is suddenly wide awake: they are worried about the one who is currently at large Defendants could return to university after a verdict (or even before that) and harass fellow students.

It is understandable that prospective lawyers do not like the idea of ​​sitting in a seminar next to a man who is accused of serious crimes and whose defense speeches seem anything but credible. The malice that some Internet commentators pour out on the AStA - sometimes even combined with the assumption that the student body itself consists of violent extremists - is therefore inappropriate.

Before writing the press release, the AStA board, who was not optimally advised in legal matters, could have had a colleague from jurisprudence explain the meaning of the word “presumption of innocence”. As unsympathetic and mendacious as Franco A. appears: Neither the student parliament nor the university presidium currently has to rule on his actions, but the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court.

Should the officer actually resume his studies and act aggressively at the university, a look at the Hessian Higher Education Act would make it easier to find the law: According to Paragraph 59, a student can be de-registered if he uses violence, threatens to do so or requests to Operation disrupts. Serious violations of house rules or university regulations can also be punished. An attitude alone, however repulsive it may be, is not a reason for sanction - neither at a university nor generally in a constitutional state. And yes, left-wing extremists and Islamists can also refer to this.