As you say so succinctly, ''of a trial that had nothing whatsoever to do with MM’’ it would be extraordinary should the appeal court judges not be taking a very close look indeed at exactly that fact and others leading directly from it.
You address the very salient point of a process which never wandered very far from the MM case, if indeed it did at all.
- It started with the defendant’s lawyer complaining that his client could not get a fair trial a result.
- It concluded with the presiding judge concurring with that opinion after a trial which seldom was allowed to stray from MM while totally ignoring the five serious sexual cases which should have been central to proceedings.
- The judges having apparently made a blanket decision in between times that ALL witnesses for the prosecution were mistaken if not congenital liars.
Being in ignorance of how the appeal court judges will view the points of law which governed the process carried out in the Braunschweig court I haven’t a clue which way they will decide to rule in the appeal from the prosecutors’ office made against the court’s decision.
But whatever it is the assurance is implicit that it will be based on law and not the personalities of the principals involved in or in the periphery of proceedings.
The only character which should have been considered was that of the defendant, evidence for which was given by an expert witness who was disregarded.
The character of the
rape survivor was also studied in great detail when the presiding judge asked intrusive questions of her.
There is potential here for embarrassment. Not for any one individual but for a system which for example, allows a lay judge to be sworn in apparently without background checks being carried out beforehand.
My opinion