BERLIN (AP) — A 30-year-old man went on trial Wednesday for an anti-Semitic attack on a Jewish restaurant three years ago in the eastern German city of Chemnitz in which the owner was injured and the restaurant damaged.
Prosecutors allege that the man, whose name was not given in line with German privacy rules, was motivated by far-right ideology. He has been indicted on charges of severe aggravated assault, breach of the peace and property damage.
The man, who went on trial at the district court in Chemnitz, was allegedly part of a group that attacked the restaurant on the evening of August 27, 2018. The group threw cobblestones at the building which hit and injured the Jewish owner of the Schalom restaurant, German news agency dpa reported. The group also yelled anti-Semitic slurs during the assault.
The anti-Semitic attack was part of several days of far-right, anti-migrant riots following the fatal stabbing of a German man by a Syrian asylum-seeker in Chemnitz.
Hundreds of far-right rioters came to Chemnitz from all over Germany protesting and chasing foreigners through the city.
At the opening of the trial, the defendant refused to talk, but the owner of the Jewish restaurant, Uwe Dziuballa, said he was shocked the night of the attack when he stepped in front of his restaurant and saw a group of around 10 people, all in dark clothes, who looked at him with hatred-filled eyes, dpa reported.
Next there were loud bangs, he recounted.
“This was completely surprisingly for me,” Dziuballa told the court, adding that his restaurant had been attacked before but that there had never been such a massive attack directed at him personally.
