The case against two former police students who are said to have shouted Nazi slogans when they attended a private basketball game at Alba Berlin was dropped in the fourth round of the trial.
The decision of the Berlin regional court was made on Thursday at the suggestion of the public prosecutor’s office and with the consent of all those involved in the process.
The accused, who are now probationary officers, had denied the allegations in the proceedings that they had used symbols belonging to unconstitutional organizations and declared that they had nothing to do with right-wing ideology.
In the current proceedings, it was said that who called what in the hall at the time could no longer be clarified beyond doubt after four years.
The alleged incident is said to have occurred in April 2018 in Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena – during a basketball game between Alba Berlin and the Skyliners from Frankfurt. The 31 and 29-year-old police officers and another former police officer were accused of chanting forbidden slogans together.
According to witnesses at the time, one of the men was said to have shouted “Sieg” and the others “Heil”.
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In a first trial before the district court in Berlin-Tiergarten in May 2019, all three suspects were fined.
All three men had appealed, but one withdrew his appeal and his conviction became final.
In October 2020, the district court decided on an acquittal in the appeal process. The Berlin Court of Appeal reversed this judgment in May 2021 on appeal by the public prosecutor’s office and ordered a new hearing before another criminal division of the Regional Court.