In connection with reports of alleged right-wing extremist content in a chat by police officers at the police headquarters in southern Hesse, the Darmstadt public prosecutor's office explained the background to the investigation on Monday when asked.
According to this, six police officers from a police station with different ranks between the ages of 34 and 48 are being investigated on suspicion of insult and defamation.
It is also about the suspicion of bodily harm and the failure to provide assistance: A spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said that two officers may have been seriously injured during operational training.
Nothing can be said with certainty at this stage of the investigation.
The "Frankfurter Rundschau" first reported on the incident.
Anna Sophia Lang
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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Jochen Remert
Airport editor and correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.
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According to the information, the case was brought to the prosecution in March 2021 via the Hessian State Criminal Police Office.
In the meantime, the proceedings against the various suspects are being conducted separately.
According to the public prosecutor, the case got rolling when three officers from the same commissariat filed a complaint against their colleagues.
They stated that the accused colleagues tried to bully them away because they considered them unsuitable.
"For this purpose, a chat group is said to have been operated, to which only selected members of the commissariat should have had access," according to the public prosecutor.
In the course of the investigation, the suspects were searched, during which mobile phones were confiscated, among other things.
A chat history appeared in which, according to the public prosecutor, among other things, there was an invitation to a celebration in the “Wolfsschanze”.
The name referred to the military situation center of the German Wehrmacht in a bunker in East Prussia, which served as Hitler's headquarters.
The investigators also secured photos that could be criminally relevant.
Whether the offense of incitement to hatred or the dissemination of signs of unconstitutional organizations is fulfilled remains to be seen.
"The conclusion of the investigation and the final legal assessment of the individual chat content with regard to its criminal relevance is still pending.
The defense attorneys are currently granted access to the files.”
No evidence of racist motives
When asked, the spokesman for the Darmstadt public prosecutor's office said that there is currently no evidence that the three police officers who filed a complaint were victims of racist motives.
But nothing can be said conclusively on this point either.
The incidents are said to have taken place between August 25, 2019 and March 22, 2020 while on duty in the police station.
The complaint came about through the "contact person of the police".
This independent body outside of the hierarchy and structures of the Hessian police is intended to offer the women and men concerned maximum discretion.
According to its own statements, the police headquarters in southern Hesse initiated four disciplinary proceedings immediately after inspecting the files.
Three of the six accused officials were released from their previous positions.
Another officer, against whom disciplinary proceedings have also been initiated, is said to be off duty at the moment.
A timely return to his previous position is also not planned.
It is uncertain whether the Darmstadt public prosecutor's office will file charges because of the right-wing extremist content in the chat.
Just like the question of whether the possible charges against the officials will be admitted by the responsible court and go to the main proceedings and whether the officials will be convicted in the end.
Constituent element of dissemination evidently fulfilled
The law requires that the criterion of "disseminating" be met.
Nobody can be prosecuted for hanging a picture of Hitler or a swastika on the wall at home.
But if you carry it around at a demonstration with thousands of participants, i.e. make it accessible to the public, things are different for you.
According to the popular comments, it is important to disseminate the content to a larger circle of people who are not related to each other through personal relationships.
It is not defined what a "larger group of people" is.
In 2015, the Federal Court of Justice ruled in a case that 844 Facebook friends constituted public perceptibility.
So the question is also important as to whether the person who shows and shares the pictures or who says and writes the sentences
could control who they reached and whether they were disseminated further.
It also plays a role in whether he can take them back by addressing those he has reached.
Police officers who shared hateful content in closed chats have therefore been acquitted more often than not.
In the case of the indictment by the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office against six officers from the 1st district in Frankfurt, however, it seems as if the prosecutors are sure of their case: There is talk of the accused "in different constellations" also in other chat groups "with between five and 28 participants” had been active.
In addition, the men are said to have been aware that the criminally relevant content they shared "was also regularly made available to people from outside the chat group".
From the point of view of the public prosecutor's office, the constituent element of the offense of dissemination is obviously fulfilled.