2nd league
Hamburg (dpa) – Two and a half years after the first allegations about the identity of the HSV professional Bakery Jatta, the case is closed for the time being. The district court of Hamburg-Altona rejected the opening of the main proceedings against the footballer.
According to the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court, “according to the available investigation results, there is no sufficient suspicion against the accused”. Jatta’s lawyer Thomas Bliwier had previously confirmed a corresponding report by the “Hamburger Abendblatt” to the German Press Agency.
In December last year, the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office brought charges against Jatta, who is now 23 years old. According to the authority, he should actually be Bakary Daffeh, who is two and a half years his senior. The Gambian had been accused of violating the Residence Act in four cases and of indirect false certification in another case.
Bliwier had raised an objection to the accusation. The public prosecutor’s office was now irritated that the Jatta lawyer’s response to the indictment had not yet been served: “Without this mandatory rule of law requirement, a decision on the matter should not have been made,” said senior public prosecutor Mia Sperling-Karstens: “The public prosecutor’s office will therefore immediately consider appropriate legal remedies.”
“This is determined”
“The rejection was for actual reasons. The public prosecutor’s office could not demonstrate that Mr. Jatta deceived,” said Jatta’s lawyer Thomas Bliwier of the dpa: “There is no suspicion and no reason for further investigations. That has been determined.”
The first allegations of an alleged false identity of the HSV striker were made in August 2019. At that time, the “Sport Bild” reported that it could be the older Bakary Daffeh, who received the residence permit in Germany based on false information. Because when he was 17 years old and therefore a minor, Jatta was subject to other criteria for a right to stay.
No proof of fake identity
However, the investigations that were launched did not produce any evidence of a fake identity. The public prosecutor’s office in Bremen and the Hamburg district office in Mitte initially stopped their investigations in late autumn 2019 after months of intensive examination. In addition, Gambian authorities confirmed the authenticity of the Jatta papers. 1. FC Nürnberg, VfL Bochum and Karlsruher SC, who had appealed against the defeats in the second division games against HSV, withdrew it.
During a search of Jatta’s apartment for further doubts in the summer of 2020, electronic data carriers such as cell phones and laptops were then confiscated. The public prosecutor had also commissioned an anthropological-morphological report from an institute in Freiburg. Result: Jatta and Daffeh are very likely one and the same person.
For the district court, however, there is now “no overriding probability that the accused has deceived about his identity,” said the statement from the higher regional court. Proof of the use of an incorrect date of birth is “highly unlikely” and Jatta would therefore “be acquitted of the allegations due to a lack of evidence”.