Trial after attack on SPD politician Matthias Ecke scheduled for 2027

After the brutal attack on SPD politician Matthias Ecke in the 2024 European election campaign, the three alleged perpetrators are to stand trial. The Dresden District Court announced that main hearing dates have been set for the first and second quarters of 2027.

Because the accused were 17 years old and therefore teenagers at the time of the crime, the trial is not being held in public. The court therefore did not announce the specific trial dates.

Attack while posting posters

Ecke was attacked on the evening of May 3, 2024 in the middle of Dresden while hanging election posters for the European elections. The alleged perpetrators caused him, among other things, a broken cheekbone and a fracture to his eye socket. Shortly afterwards, they also attacked a Green politician who was posting posters nearby.

In January 2025, the public prosecutor filed charges against the young men. She accuses two of them of causing grievous bodily harm in two cases and of aiding and abetting the third. At that time, the Saxony State Criminal Police Office attributed at least one suspect to the right-wing spectrum.

Three years between crime and trial

The fact that around three years will have passed from the attack to the trial is due to various delays and procedural processes in the courts. First, responsibility for the case changed from a juvenile judge at the local court to a colleague. Then the Dresden Regional Court, as the next higher authority, had to decide on a complaint.

In juvenile criminal law, the focus is on the idea of ​​education - theoretically, punishments should not be too far removed from the crime.