On Monday, the Hanau Regional Court sentenced the father of the Hanau attacker to a fine of 80 daily rates for insult in two cases.

With the income of the German defendant, that amounts to 4,800 euros.

According to the judges, he had racially insulted demonstrators in front of his house.

He described the special task force (SEK), which broke into his house on the night of the crime and was looking for his son, as a "terrorist unit".

Hans-Gerd R. had already been found guilty in three cases by the district court last year for insult.

The district court had to decide on the appeal of the accused and the public prosecutor's office.

Jan Schiefenhoevel

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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For the two cases in which the appeals chamber considered the offense of insult to be fulfilled, the district judges left it at the sentence of the district court.

In the third case, Hans-Gerd R. had accused the mayor of Hanau, Claus Kaminsky (SPD), of deceiving the voters.

Although that is disreputable and "sharp on the border of insult", it is not punishable.

After all, it must be allowed for citizens to criticize a public official, as stated in the verdict.

The criminal proceedings surrounding the statements are probably not yet over.

The accused had announced before the verdict that he would appeal if he was not acquitted.

The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court may have to decide on this.

The public prosecutor wants to check whether they will also appeal

The incident happened almost two years ago

The presiding judge Angela Peter said in her verdict on Monday evening that in December 2020 a group of around 30 people, including relatives of those murdered in the Hanau attack, demonstrated in front of Hans-Gerd R.'s house.

In a criminal complaint against them, Hans-Gerd R. not only described them as "wild strangers", but also wrote that these people had to "shut up" and "subordinate themselves to the German people".

The judge said it was disreputable, racist and xenophobic to the extent that it made her stomach turn.

On the night of the crime, the officers of the special commando were only “doing their job” in the defendant’s house, where his son had lived until then.

They first made themselves known in order to be admitted.

When Hans-Gerd R. did not react to this, they entered by force.

At that moment they should have assumed that they would find an armed perpetrator who was still alive in the house.

The police officers had temporarily arrested the landlord and handcuffed him.

This was done for their own safety and was correct.

The judge said the accused was concerned only with himself and showed no empathy for the suffering of others.

Confused statements by the father of the Hanau assassin

The defendant had his say in detail over three days of the trial.

In his "last word" before the verdict, which took up almost the entire last day of the hearing, he claimed that his son was not the perpetrator of the murder of nine people.

Rather, "secret organizations" that are subordinate to the Hessian Office for the Protection of the Constitution are involved in the crimes.

During the trial, Hans-Gerd R. personally attacked the public prosecutor many times and accused him of "psychological bondage".

He accused the district court of not conducting a fair trial.

According to the investigation, the accused's son, the 43-year-old German Tobias R., shot nine people in downtown Hanau and on Kurt-Schumacher-Platz in Weststadt on the evening of February 19, 2020.

He then killed his mother, who was suffering from dementia, and himself.