Following an apparently homophobic assault in Augsburg’s city center, the Augsburg Regional Court will begin hearings against four men on February 23. The suspects, who were 22 to 25 years old at the time, are accused of beating two men last March (TheColu.mn reported). Investigators believe that a queer‑phobic motive at least played a role in the attack.
According to a court spokesperson, the criminal chamber has scheduled eleven days of hearings. A verdict could come on March 13. The defendants face charges of aggravated assault.
One of the defendants has already made headlines for violence
The case has drawn national attention in part because one of the defendants is 23 and had previously attracted nationwide media attention for a violent crime six years earlier. In 2019, on Nikolaus Night, then 17-year-old Halid S. killed a 49-year-old father at Augsburg’s Königsplatz with a single punch. He was later sentenced to four and a half years in juvenile detention for bodily harm resulting in death.
In the new proceedings, the four defendants are said to have clashed with two other men on Maximilianstraße, Augsburg’s best-known nightlife thoroughfare. Homophobic insults directed at the two victims are alleged to have triggered the violence. The two men are reported to have sustained numerous bruises on the head and upper body.
The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office took over the case
However, there may also have been provocative conduct by the two injured men during the altercation. Until a final conviction is reached, the four defendants are presumed innocent.
Because the investigations yielded indications of a homophobic background, the case was taken over by the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Bavarian Center for Combating Extremism and Terrorism, which operates within that office, is responsible for serious hate-crime cases.
