Dresden left-wing extremism trial
German court case against left-wing extremists
On 31 May 2023, a Dresden court found 28-year-old far-left extremist Lina Engel guilty of six acts of violence including causing dangerous bodily harm against neo-Nazi individuals, and sentenced her to five years and three months of imprisonment. Three co-defendants (Lennart A., Jonathan Philipp M., and Jannis R.) were charged with her, convicted and received shorter sentences.
Background
In 2022, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution released a report saying that there had been a significant rise in far-left extremism in Germany, with violence directed "primarily at the police and right-wing extremists" and linking far-left extremism to climate protest groups. The Federal Criminal Police Office's annual report that same year stated there had been a drop in cases attributed to left-wing extremism in 2022, and a 16% increase in cases attributed to far-right extremism. German police attributed 23,493 registered crimes to the far right in 2022, and 6,976 to the far left.
Attacks
Lina Engel was a student from Kassel who was studying social work in Leipzig, in eastern Germany, with a focus on preventing far-right radicalization among youth. According to Deutsche Welle, she had become politicized following the National Socialist Underground murders in the 2000s and the subsequent trial, which had sparked significant controversy surrounding links between German intelligence services and the far-right. Her group was accused of carrying out six attacks against far-right targets in Saxony and Thuringia between 2018 and 2020. Lina was determined to be the head of the group, which the court ruled to be a criminal organization.
The attacks were highly organized.
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