The activists say all their protests were open, accountable and non-violent, and contested the use of such a draconian law against them.
“This is the first time in German history that a climate protest group that uses measures of peaceful civil disobedience is charged as a criminal organisation,” Herrman said.
“This charge is especially dangerous for democracy and the right to peaceful protest because the charge turns the constitutional right of protest, freedom of speech and political assembly into a crime simply because some laws were broken in course of civil disobedient protest.
“This charge is meant for mafia and organised crime. This charge criminalises every act of support towards the group Letzte Generation. This creates an immense chilling effect on all climate protests in Germany.”
Either the judiciary in my home country has watched 12 Monkeys too often, or it is not as independent of the industry as it pretends to be. Either way, this is completely absurd and a declaration of the bankruptcy of our legal system.