Justiz: Berufungsprozess gegen Maja T.: Anklage fordert längere Haft

Seven months after Maja T. was sentenced to eight years in prison, the appeal process began in Budapest. The non-binary individual from Jena, often associated with the left scene, was convicted in January for serious assaults on alleged far-right extremists in Hungary. The prosecutor is now seeking a harsher sentence, while the defense argues for acquittal.

The alleged offenses are linked to violent activities of a German Antifa group, for which members have already been sentenced in Germany. The final judgment for Maja T. is expected on September 30. Prosecutor demands harsher sentence The prosecutor requested an increased prison term for Maja T. of over 13 years; the maximum penalty for the charged offenses ranges from 2 to 24 years.

The prosecutor did not specify the exact prison term - this is in line with the usual practice in Hungary, experts explained. Moreover, the prosecutor demanded an escalation of the prison term: Maja T. should serve her sentence in a prison, not a so-called detention center, which in Hungary restricts movement within the penal institution and complicates early release.

The prosecutor complained that the court in the first instance had not recognized that the defendant had possibly life-threatening injuries to their victims with callous indifference. Defense questions evidence and pleads for acquittal The defense argued that the identification of Maja T. from the street surveillance videos of the crime scene was not conclusive.

Furthermore, it was not proven that the active Antifa offender in Budapest belonged to a criminal association defined by criminal law. The medical expert had also presented no clear evidence to the court that the victims had been attacked with weapons like batons. Additionally, the procedural rights of Maja T. were violated as her full relevant material was not made available to her in a German translation.

Maja T. was arrested in Berlin in December 2023 and extradited from Germany to Hungary in June 2024. According to the Federal Constitutional Court, the extradition was unlawful in this form. The competent appellate court, which had ordered her extradition, had not sufficiently examined the detention circumstances for the non-binary person, found Germany's highest court.