Now the biggest ‘lateral thinkers’ idols are going to court France bans domestic flights that no longer exist

Sucharit Bhakdi is 76 years old and a professor of medical microbiology – at least for now. Because the University of Mainz is currently investigating the revocation of the title of professor. According to the website of the university’s Institute of Medical Microbiology, where Bhaki taught until he retired a decade ago, Bhakdi represents positions that are “misleading to the point of falsehood” from the university’s point of view.

And now the focus is on Plön in Schleswig-Holstein: Bhakdi will stand trial there on Tuesday on charges of incitement to hatred, and the outcome will also play a role in the question of the title.

During the corona pandemic, Bhakdi became a figurehead in the ‘lateral thinker’ scene by repeatedly expressing massive criticism of government measures and apparently citing ‘scientific facts’ for this.

The fact that much of this turned out to be incorrect on closer inspection and that Bhakdi himself was unable to hand over scientific publications on the subject did not detract from his popularity.

With the trial against Bhakdi, one of the prominent opponents of the measure, who came into conflict with the judiciary, is now on trial. There are still three potentially spectacular lawsuits pending against icons of the scene.

All cases and persons at a glance:

The professor who downplayed the Holocaust

Sucharit Bhakdi initially made a name for himself with critical questions to the German Chancellor about Corona, then became increasingly a political figure and radicalized when he received little media attention and his claims were presented as unproven, unscientific and refuted. He unsuccessfully ran for the anti-corona party “Basis” for the Bundestag, called for demos and spoke there himself.

The public prosecutor of Schleswig-Holstein accuses him of hate speech in two cases: on the one hand, in April 2021, in a video distributed on YouTube, he attacked the vaccination policy of the Israeli government with the words that the “Jewish people” received “archevil” from the Nazis learned and “implemented”.

On the other hand, in an election campaign speech, he linked the approval of Covid-19 vaccines to an “ultimate goal” and spoke of a second Holocaust.

Special property: The public prosecutor’s office in Kiel has initially stopped the preliminary investigation against him. The public prosecutor intervened and took over, the court subsequently upheld the charges.

The judge in the dock

It was a bang and shook the judiciary as the Weimar family ruled Christian Demmer not until April 8, 2021 with a decision to revoke the mask requirement. As of June 15, he will be in court, charged with perverting the law.

In a procedure he had banned two schools from requiring their students to wear face masks and rapid corona tests and ordered face-to-face education.

Dettmer’s reasoning: the regulations are unconstitutional, the welfare of the child prohibits wearing a mask. Opponents of the measures welcomed the decision and solidarity rallies were held in the courts.

Investigations into the allegation that the family judge had abused his office began very early: he was not authorized to make such a decision or could not have given an order to teachers and school principals under the law – and should have known this: hence the accusation of twisting the law. Shortly after his decision, his house was searched.

There were indications that the judge wanted to express his fundamental political position with the ruling and could have found a pretext in the case. A family under his responsibility was sought with the first letter of their surname, he had only appointed experts who were critical of the measures, and planned the matter with others, so to speak.

Special property: Dettmer was provisionally suspended with a 25 percent salary cut. If convicted, he will lose judicial office and civil servant status. The minimum sentence for circumventing the law is one year, which leads to dismissal from government service. Dettmer is represented by Hamburg star lawyer Gerhardt Strate, who is reportedly working on a deal.

The scammer

Also the ENT doctor of Sinsheim Bod Schiffmann had initially tried to contradict the corona measures in a largely objective manner and initially also demanded face masks for protection. But soon he also produced videos falsely claiming that children had died from wearing masks. He also called for vaccinations to be distributed through fake phone calls and issued false mask exemption certificates.

At the end of 2020, Schiffmann gave up his practice. He lived on donations and now runs a tourist accommodation in Tanzania.

This is one of the reasons why he and his wife, also a doctor, were charged. There are also accusations of hate speech against him: in a video he downplayed the Holocaust when he compared vaccine doctors to concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele. Mengele supervised gassings and performed inhumane pseudomedical experiments. Schiffmann also spoke of “genocide” by the government. Because he called for “holding to account anyone who invented this,” he has also been accused of calling for dissent against the government and judiciary.

Schiffmann had announced that he would be traveling to trial. Although the indictment is dated April 2022, there is no trial date yet. First of all, the court said that more urgent procedures had arisen from the Corona period.

In the meantime, however, the prosecution has filed new charges regarding Schiffmann’s messages: in one of them he allegedly insulted or defamed the Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach and thus a person in political life. In another, he shared an RAF-style “wanted poster” featuring Annalena Baerbock, among others. Schiffmann complained that satirist Jahn Böhmermann was not prosecuted because of a satirical poster featuring conservative politicians.

The founder of “lateral thinking”.

Michael Balweg performed the first demo against the measures on April 18, 2020 and let others follow, which attracted more and more people. He founded the “lateral thinking” movement and became its head. And he got money for it – more than a million euros.

In March 2023, Ballweg was charged with attempted fraud and money laundering. He allegedly misled the donors about what the money will be used for. His lawyers deny the allegations.

In June 2022, his home was searched as he was about to finalize the sale of his home in Stuttgart. He ended up in custody because of the risk of absconding. There were regular solidarity meetings for the JVA Stammheim.

After Ballweg has been free since the beginning of April, the acceleration requirement for pre-trial detainees no longer applies: there is no longer any rush. Observers expect his trial to begin at the end of this year.

Sources

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(t-online/dsc)