Unjustly!

New Year’s Eve ends in court for young men

"They're not rioters, they're not bullies. They are not the usual clientele," is how the defense describes the four friends sitting in Korneuburg Regional Court. A police officer accuses them of having put up proper resistance on New Year's Eve 2024. But that's not quite true ...

"Nobody touched the police officer", say four young men in Korneuburg Regional Court (Lower Austria) unanimously. Nevertheless, they are now in the dock for attempted resistance to state authority.

Police operation due to firecrackers thrown
On New Year's Eve 2024, they were caught up in a police operation completely unsuspectingly. It was not aimed at them, but at another group of young people who had exploded firecrackers in letterboxes and garbage bins in Strasshof an der Nordbahn in Lower Austria. "If one of the defendants hadn't run away, we would never have met", defense lawyer Normann Hofstätter sums it up.

Police officer was "in his element"
The judge wants to know from the 23-year-old why he did it: "I don't remember. It was a reflex," he replies. In any case, an officer ran after him and threw him to the ground from behind. "That was a real rugby tackle. He was somehow completely in his element," recalls the first defendant (24).

Lawyers Andreas Strobl and Norman Hofstätter (left) defend two of the accused and achieve acquittals.(Bild: Pratschner Sophie)

Lawyers Andreas Strobl and Norman Hofstätter are certain that what happened afterwards is no longer true. The police officer in question accuses the four friends of having pushed him violently several times afterwards - of having resisted. "No one attacked the police officer," they all insist. There were certainly discussions, Hofstätter even admits to "provocative behavior by the defendants". But no violence.

Video and witness exonerate the defendants
After a video of the incident was shown and an independent witness who had observed the scene from her house was questioned, the young police officer also had to admit in court: He was massively overwhelmed by the situation, could no longer say at all who had pushed him and how. So the four friends are not acquitted.