Aachen, July 01, 2016 – The case against Basti has been set today after several hours of hearing. He renounced compensation for having served innocently a custody of about a month and is now free without conditions.
Numerous supportive listeners were present, however, the involvement of the police and state security in the court was far more numerous. Two security gates together with identity checks caused delays in the start of the trial. There were no incidents.
The hearing took place similar to the first day of the first trial. There were two invited witnesses, both then working for RWE as security agents. Both witnesses had seen something, but could not confirm whether it in fact was Basti who struck the security guard, which led to the first instance sentencing. Both pretended that they heard this from the other one. Ultimately, the second witness testified to have seen that a stick had been raised. He later learned that his colleague allegedly was beaten and then guessed, that was what he claims to have seen. “A knallzeuge”, the judge, prosecutor and defender evaluated unanimously in the final talk. In legal terminology a knallzeuge (bang witness) is somebody who e.g. only heard the bang and then believes to be an eye witness.
The first witness (who had stated to have been injured) had seen Basti with a stick in front of him. However, he then got (from the other side) pepper spray in his eyes, after which he had to close them for several minutes. In this time he got the blow, he testified. The inquiring prosecutor noticed, that he impossibly could make any observation whatsoever.
There were numerous other inconsistencies that were more than clear already on the first day. It probably will remain a secret of that judge, why the trial at first instance ended in a conviction. Final word of the second witness: “In fact nothing happened at all, nobody was hurt, except for the pepper spray I do not understand why they made such a big thing out of it.” Almost nothing more is to to add. With his incident, however, started a long series of repressions against activists of the Hambach Forest. For Basti 20 months of repression in this matter are over now.

What happened before

On March 08, 2016, after the proceeding in march, was spoken a sentence against Basti by the lower district court of Düren: One year jail was imposed on three years of probation.
He had been in custody for about one month.