The previously unknown environmental activist, nicknamed "Ella" by her supporters, was released from custody on Monday.

The district court in Gießen had previously lifted the arrest warrant in the morning.

This was confirmed by a court spokesman when asked.

The accused presented a passport and thus revealed her identity, which she had refused to do since her arrest in November 2020.

Anna Sophia Lang

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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In April 2022, in the second instance, she was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison by the Gießen Regional Court because the judges were convinced that she had kicked a police officer out of a tree house in the helmet and attacked another with his knee when clearing the Dannenröder forest .

"Ella" has appealed the verdict.

She was released immediately after the arrest warrant was lifted.

The court had recently ruled that the chamber considered it proven that the accused hit one of the officers of the special unit that was supposed to rescue the tree squatters with one of the kicks on the helmet and attacked another with his knee.

The police operation was justified after the Vogelsberg district had ordered the clearing of the area through which the motorway route will lead.

In its plea, the defense asserted that its client had the right to self-defence against an unauthorized police operation.

In addition, the lawyers demanded that the proceedings be ended without a verdict, because the principles of a fair trial had been grossly disregarded.

In particular, exculpatory circumstances, especially the self-protection of the officers, were not clarified by the police, the public prosecutor's office or the Alsfeld District Court.