The Altona district court sentenced three young men for beating up Chinese students on New Year’s Eve 2023/24. The court imposed fines, time off, discussions with the juvenile justice system and anti-aggression training. The trial attracted particular interest because it was suspected that the crimes had a racist background. However, the court only considered this to be verifiable for one of the defendants.
The ten Chinese students came to Hamburg to sing in a karaoke bar. On the way home to Bremen they wanted to catch an S-Bahn in Altona – just like the three defendants. According to the court’s findings, the defendant P. pulled one of the students from behind by his violin case and shouted “sching-schang-schong”.
As a result, there was a scuffle on the stairs leading to the platform. The defendant Ö. hit the student with the violin case. All three defendants then began punching and kicking the Chinese, with Ö. particularly stood out and the defendant tried to appease A. in between. All of this is documented by videos from cell phones and surveillance cameras, some of which are of excellent quality.
To assess whether and to what extent the attack was racially motivated the assessments of those involved in the process varied. The public prosecutor was convinced that xenophobic statements had been made. But all that was heard was P’s exclamation, “Son of a bitch.” The witnesses gave different statements as to whether words like “shit Chinese” or “fuck China” were said.
Racism or not?
His defense attorney Gerrit Beencke also admitted that P. had shouted “sching-schang-schong”. Although that was tasteless and disrespectful, it was not the motive for the fight. “That would presuppose that she was motivated by a hostile attitude towards an ethnic group,” says the lawyer. “But that didn’t matter at that moment.”
The incident showed the typical escalation process of a group of young men – “a classic example of immaturity and group pressure,” said the lawyer. For an outside observer it is completely incomprehensible what the whole thing was about. The attack was spontaneous, unplanned and not racially motivated.
Ö.’s lawyer Jan Raschka also argued “that they targeted people, because they were Chinese“, could not be proven.” There are often arguments on New Year’s Eve. The act is typical of young people.
The representative of the co-plaintiff saw it differently. Anyone who asks about the reason for the attack always comes back to one thing: “People were beaten up because they looked different.” Although he is most likely to accept that A., who had also tried to mediate, is remorseful, but on the other hand: “What was there to mediate here, there was no dispute,” asked the co-plaintiff’s lawyer. The defendants themselves initiated the fatal dynamics of the event.
People were beaten up because they looked different
Representative of the co-plaintiff
In its guilty verdict, the court went beyond the public prosecutor’s demands, but remained below those of the co-prosecutor, who demanded a suspended youth sentence. From the court’s perspective, it is clear that P. shouted xenophobic insults. For A. and Ö. that cannot be said with certainty.
The court sentenced A. to pay 600 euros to a victim protection organization and to attend four counseling appointments. O. has to pay 1,500 euros, get career guidance advice and a Antiagressionstraining go through. There is also a day of leisure detention, which Judge Fischer justified with the “extent of violence”.
O. hit the Chinese like a boxer or martial artist. “We see physical injuries every day,” said the judge. But blows with such force – and also to the head and face – would have particular weight. All witnesses were permanently affected by the fact that they were severely beaten for no reason.
Nosebleeds for hours
As a result of the attack, one of the Chinese had repeated nosebleeds and toothache for hours and still to this day, as he testified. The music student was unable to take an entrance exam because of a swollen eye and has been avoiding crowds ever since.
P. received two days of detention on top of that. The court convicted him of assault, insult and for ramming a police car with a rental car without a driver’s license. In a case of racism, the court said, a regular youth sentence could also be considered. However, P. has not attracted any further criminal proceedings since then. There is no evidence that he still has harmful tendencies.
All of the defendants had already appeared in court for various crimes, some of them several times. The judge justified the amount of the fines by saying that they should be noticeable. The leisure time detention should by no means be understood as retaliation – one of the lawyers described it as alien to juvenile criminal law. Rather, it is about understanding that this act would have led to a prison sentence for adults. “You should see how it feels,” the judge said.
The judgment is not yet legally binding. The defendants can go into revision or appeal.