By Tatiana Arias, Nadine Schmidt and Sophie Tanno, June 4, 2023
Hundreds of far-left protesters clashed with police in the eastern German city of Leipzig on Saturday night, during demonstrations over jail terms handed down to several people convicted of vigilante attacks against neo-Nazis.
Earlier this week, a court in Dresden convicted four left-wing activists, including a well-known student identified in German media as Lina E., of committing violent acts against neo-Nazis, sentencing them to jail for two to five years. Groups sympathetic to Lina E., who is from Leipzig, have been protesting the verdict.
An anti-fascist “Day-X” march planned for Saturday in Leipzig – where most of the attacks took place – was banned because authorities were concerned that it posed a threat to public safety. The ban was contested by the protest’s organizers, according to German newspaper Der Spiegel.
