BERLIN: For the second night in a row, left-wing protesters and German police clashed over a woman’s prison sentence after she committed vigilante assaults against neo-Nazis.
According to police, demonstrators in Leipzig, a city in eastern Germany, blocked roads, started fires, and hurled stones at security personnel.
The BBC said that despite being imprisoned since 2020, Lina E was given a five-year sentence but freed while awaiting an appeal. The demonstration was previously prohibited in the city where Lina E had gone to school.
Around 1,500 individuals showed up there, a police spokesperson claimed that around a third of them were “prone to violence,” according to Reuters.
Similar events the night before, when hundreds of people burned bonfires in the street and threw stones from houses into police cars, were followed by the violence on Saturday.
Lina E was recognised as the head of a far-left gang that engaged in a savage, multi-year campaign of violence against the extreme right, involving assaults with hammers, iron bars, and baseball bats.
Row over jail term for woman who attacked neo-Nazis
Following Lina E’s conviction, there were far-left demonstrations in several locations, and police were attacked with baseball bats, fireworks, and bottles.
On Wednesday, jail terms were also imposed on three other men who had been convicted with her but whose second names had been withheld from the public.
The decision to release Lina E after 2.5 years in jail infuriated other Germans because they felt it implied that violence against the extreme right was permissible.
She has turned in her passport and identity card as she waits for the outcome of her appeal since she is reportedly ill.
