Lawyers’ collective Berlin Berlin, 24.05.2024

Translated through deepl website

Lawyers’ collective on the eviction of the Jabalia Institute (Institute for Social Sciences) at Humboldt University on 23.05.2024
The brutal eviction of students from the Jabalia Institute in violation of the rule of law is now another worrying low point in the repression against people in solidarity with Palestine in Berlin and Germany.
Several lawyers from our collective have been on site since the first day of the occupation to support the students in their protest against the genocide in Gaza and to address their demands to the university management. Their demands included an immediate stop to the genocide in Gaza, and the prevention of the threatened tightening of the university law.
Yesterday, at least one of our lawyers was denied access by the university management, despite the students’ explicit insistence on legal assistance.

Contrary to the clear agreement that the university management would not have the Jabalia Institute evacuated by the police, dozens of students were arrested and beaten up by the police in and outside the building early yesterday evening. Our lawyer colleague was also arrested and, according to the police on site, he and all others arrested are now accused of aggravated breach of the peace.

According to our lawyers on site, it was agreed with the university management that all students would be allowed to leave the Jabalia Institute accompanied by their professors without having their identity checked. This agreement was broken. Even those students who left the Jabalia Institute early were arrested and their personal details recorded, contrary to the university management’s assurances.

Kai Wegner and the Senate itself gave the order to take full forceful action against the students. Wegner is said to have ordered the police leadership to record the personal details of all those present – without any initial suspicion. There is no initial suspicion against anyone because the university management has clearly stated that no criminal charges will be brought. There was therefore no apparent legal basis for the police operation, but rather an undemocratic and authoritarian intervention on the part of the government, in complete disregard of the university’s right to self-government.

If the individual graffiti are now used to justify the police operation, this is also not a comprehensible legal basis at all,  because damage to property is also a (relative) offense and the university management has not filed a criminal filed a criminal complaint. In any case, the graffiti cannot be attributed to any individual; a
collective initial suspicion against hundreds of people present cannot be constructed in this way.

In addition to establishing their identity, almost all of those arrested were also subjected to identification procedures. Such blanket identification treatment goes beyond the limits of what is permissible under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

According to the observations of our lawyers on site, the accusation of aggravated breach of the peace cannot be upheld. There is said to have been a single isolated throw of a milk carton. This does not justify the police’s actions and must be understood as a reaction to the brutal intervention of the police themselves.

In addition, the spontaneous rally in front of the Jabalia Institute in solidarity with the students and their demands to support the Palestinian cause, was attacked and kettled by the police. In complete disregard of the right of assembly under Article 8 of the Basic Law, the police refused on site to register the rally, thus preventing the protection of fundamental rights. According to eyewitness reports, the police used pain and chokeholds on the assembly participants without any prior notice, which some experts rightly regard as a violation of the ban on torture.

In addition, they were banned from the premises until 11 pm the following day and threatened with preventive detention for 5 days. Students were threatened with expulsion (‘Exmatrikulation’) by police officers. With the police chief Slowick on site, we consider this and all the measures mentioned above, which took place in a lawless area, to be politically motivated.

We as a lawyers’ collective show solidarity with the students. Their protest is legitimate. We demand that all criminal proceedings be dropped. We address our outrage at this undemocratic and authoritarian action to the Senate – the Wegner government bears full responsibility for every injured and unjustly arrested person, and for the violation of the university’s right to self-govern. On May 23, 2024, the Wegner government crowned the birthday of the Basic Law in the most undignified of ways.