Ausgabejahr 2025
Erscheinungsdatum 13.02.2026

Nr. 055/2025

Judgment of 19 March 2025 – 3 StR 173/24

The Federal Court of Justice has dismissed defendant Lina E.’s appeal on points of law against her conviction handed down by Dresden Higher Regional Court with minor amendments to the guilty verdict and the appeal on points of law by the Federal Public Prosecutor General in its entirety. The Higher Regional Court convicted the defendant, among other things, of membership of a criminal organisation in concurrence with multiple counts of grievous bodily harm committed in that capacity and sentenced her to an aggregate term of imprisonment of five years and three months.

According to the findings of the Higher Regional Court, the defendant was a member of a militant left-wing extremist group established in and around Leipzig. This group aimed to take violent action against individual members of the right-wing extremist scene, thus fighting right-wing extremist ambitions by means of massive physical force. The defendant, who belonged to the left-wing extremist political spectrum, took part in a sizeable number of such assaults, in which striking tools were used to attack the victims in most cases and some of the aggrieved parties suffered severe injuries.

Both the Office of the Federal Prosecutor and the defendant filed appeals on points of law against the judgment of the Higher Regional Court, asserting that it was flawed by material legal deficiencies. The Office of the Federal Prosecutor objected, in particular, to the fact that the defendant had been acquitted of the charge of collaborating in an offence by the group and had not been classified as a leader of the left-wing extremist organisation.

The review of the judgment on points of law only, conducted by the Third Criminal Panel at the Federal Court of Justice, which has jurisdiction for cases relating to crimes against the state, merely resulted in a minor amendment to the guilty verdict. In particular, owing to a fundamental change in the panel’s jurisprudence on the treatment of concurrent offences in cases of participation as a member of a criminal or terrorist organisation, the relationship between the individual offences committed by the defendant was redefined. The panel upheld the aggregate sentence of imprisonment of five years and three months imposed by the Higher Regional Court. The appeal on points of law by the Office of the Federal Prosecutor was unsuccessful. The considerations substantiating the Higher Regional Court’s acquittal of the defendant in one case were legally unobjectionable. The Higher Regional Court found without error of law that she did not hold a leadership position in the organisation. Although it gave well-founded reasons to suggest that the defendant had an outstanding position in the group, it was unable to establish without legal error that she had a marked influence on the orientation, structure and activities of the organisation as such.

This ruling by the Federal Court of Justice concludes the criminal proceedings against the defendant.

Lower Court
Higher Regional Court Dresden – 4 St 2/21 – judgment of 31 May 2023

Karlsruhe, 19 March 2025