New Year’s Eve riots in Berlin: 102 procedures for assaults on emergency services
Status: 09.01.2023 12:51 p.m
After the New Year’s Eve riots in Berlin, the police handed over the first case to the public prosecutor’s office. A total of 102 criminal proceedings are currently underway for assaults on emergency services. So-called super recognizers evaluate video recordings.
After the riots during Berlin’s New Year’s Eve, the Berlin police have now handed over the 22nd case involving around ten suspects to the public prosecutor’s office. Police President Barbara Slowik said this in the Interior Committee of the House of Representatives.
According to the current status, there are 49 procedures for attacks on police officers with 37 suspects and 53 procedures in which firefighters have been attacked. The police are working “really with high pressure” to clarify what happened, Slowik emphasized.
“It is being determined at high pressure”, Anke Hahn, RBB, with details about the interior committee on New Year’s Eve riots in Berlin
Tagesschau 12:00 p.m., 9.1.2023
Investigators use “Super Recognizer”.
She concentrates primarily on the evaluation of the extensive video material. However, the first witnesses would also be heard. Some of the video recordings are very good, Slowik explained. Investigators such as so-called Super Recognizers, who have special face recognition skills, are also involved in the evaluation.
According to the “Berliner Zeitung”, Berlin’s senior public prosecutor Jörg Raupach assumes that the investigation into the perpetrators will take months. “It’s meticulous work and it won’t be done in a week or two. We’re talking more about months,” Raupach told the newspaper.
According to Raupach, the investigations were located in the public prosecutor’s department specializing in acts of violence at sporting events. The eight colleagues in the department would be familiar with such offenses because they had already dealt with the use of pyrotechnics in criminal offenses and had experience with dynamic violent developments.
They are highly motivated and the procedures would be processed with priority: “But we are still a constitutional state.” This means that the deeds must be proven. “I have my doubts as to whether we can reach all of the perpetrators by criminal means. But it’s worth the try,” said the chief public prosecutor.