After the attack on the ZDF team: the Berlin public prosecutor’s office is allowed to take DNA samples from suspects – Berlin
Almost two years after the attack on a team of the ZDF satirical program “heute-show” on the sidelines of a corona demonstration, the Berlin public prosecutor’s office has achieved considerable success in court. The district court allowed investigators to take DNA samples from the six suspects. That reported dying “Berliner Morgenpost” on Sunday, citing a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office.
The seven-person ZDF team filmed a “hygiene demo” on May 1, 2020 on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and was just taking a break from filming on Rochstrasse – between Alexanderplatz and Hackechem Markt – when it was attacked by up to 25 hooded people . Metal rods were also used.
An employee was kicked to unconsciousness, three other barriers with access are treated in the hospital as an outpatient. Cabaret artist Abdelkarim Zemhoute, who was with the team as a reporter, was unharmed and alerted the police. “An attack can’t be much more cowardly,” he later looks back on the attack in a video of the “heute-show”. In it he described the scene as “a beating of a completely defenseless group that posed no threat”.
The attack received strong public response. The then Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) condemned him sharply. “Freedom of the press is a pillar of our democracy. The state has to guarantee that this fundamental right is guaranteed at all times and in all places,” he said.
Suspects come from the left scene
Shortly after the crime, the Berlin police arrested six suspects between the ages of 24 and 31, four men and two women, who fled on bicycles and a car. Four of them lived in Berlin, two were registered in Baden-Württemberg.
The police assigned the suspects to the left-wing scene. “There are findings in the field of politically motivated crime on the left for 24-year-olds and two men aged 25,” said a spokeswoman for the State Criminal Police Office at the time. According to Tagesspiegel information, it is said to be an insult to officials and a violation of assembly bans.
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Initially, it wasn’t enough for arrest warrants – partly because of thin evidence, partly because there was no risk of absconding. The clarification was “time-consuming in view of the dynamics and complexity of what happened,” the public prosecutor said a few days after the crime. Numerous witnesses would have to be heard, but their statements “did not give a uniform picture in all details,” it said.
In order to convict the suspects of the attack, the public prosecutor’s office wants to compare their DNA with traces from the crime scene, the “Berliner Morgenpost” now reports. An investigating judge granted the prosecutor’s request in September last year. The suspects had lodged an appeal, but the district court had already dismissed them around two months ago. The decision is final, the suspects must now submit DNA samples.
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The motive is a mystery. One thesis: The suspects are said to have gotten into an argument with the team before the attack because they did not want to be filmed. However, moderator Zemhoute did not confirm this.
Another thesis: The troops could have been on the road to hunt down participants in the right-wing “hygiene demo” – and confused the ZDF team with the demonstrators. The circumstances of the escape were then also indicated: the suspects took off their clothes or even changed them, the police spoke of an expected attack.