In two lawsuits before the Hamburg Administrative Court (case numbers 6 K 8497/17 and 6 K 10186/17), the Hamburg police acknowledged the illegality of serious bodily harm inflicted by police officers during the G20 summit in Hamburg in 2017. The Administrative Court subsequently issued default judgments on June 24, 2022, confirming the illegality of the challenged police actions. The police's acknowledgment followed indications from the Administrative Court, which had expressed doubts about the legality of the measures during a hearing on May 11, 2022. It appears the police were attempting to avoid taking evidence.
The dispute concerned brutal actions by Saxon police officers against the then 28-year-old female plaintiff and the then 32-year-old male plaintiff. Both were cycling in the Holstenglacis area on the night of July 7-8, 2017, and intended to pass through a police cordon that was not closed at the time on their way home. Without warning or foreseeable, police officers blocked their path, shouted at them, and, in particular, pulled the female plaintiff off her bicycle so violently that she broke her arm. The officers then dragged the female plaintiff to a traffic island near Sievekingplatz and left her there with a broken arm and an injured back. The male plaintiff, who repeatedly called for help, was pushed back by police officers and repeatedly struck. Both plaintiffs had to be hospitalized and still suffer from the significant consequences of these actions.
After several years of inaction by the Hamburg judiciary and a complaint of undue delay filed under the Courts Constitution Act in 2020, the court scheduled a hearing in May 2022, outlined its preliminary legal opinion, and sought a procedural settlement. This was rejected by the plaintiffs, who then demanded a public hearing of evidence.
The police have now preempted this taking of evidence by acknowledging the procedural claim in both proceedings. No further taking of evidence will take place.
“We assume that the police want to protect the image of a supposedly lawful security authority in connection with the G20 summit and therefore obstructed the taking of evidence. As a result, however, the court-established illegality of police use of force contradicts the claim of lawful police action,” explains Göttingen lawyer Sven Adam, who represents the plaintiff, describing his assessment of the police's procedural conduct.
“It was brutal, unannounced, and unjustified violence with serious consequences that was inflicted on our client and our client. However, identifying specific perpetrators is impossible because the unit from Saxony, which is presumably involved, remains silent. There is no interest in clarifying this matter in either Saxony or Hamburg,” says attorney Christian Woldmann, expressing his frustration with the police conduct during the proceedings.
