German Justice: How Balanced?

Neo-Nazis and skinheads in Germany have been pretty much getting away with murder, thanks to remarkably tolerant judges and lenient sentences. That most of the victims of the hate crimes for which these extremists have been convicted were foreigners may have a lot to do with the mildness of the penalties imposed by the courts.

As Times correspondent Tyler Marshall reported the other day, human rights activists both in Germany and abroad are increasingly concerned about the trend in German courts. They have good reason to be.

Last year in Magdeburg five skinheads who beat a man to death received suspended sentences of 10 to 20 months. Two youths convicted of fire-bombing a hotel for asylum seekers in 1991 and critically burning a Lebanese child received sentences of five and three years. Two neo-Nazis who killed a Mozambican immigrant in 1991 were let off with 18-month suspended sentences. Two youths convicted of killing an Angolan national got jail terms of two and four years. This week a verdict is expected in the notorious case in which two neo-Nazis have been charged with last year’s firebombing in the town of Moelln, which killed three Turks.

No justice system, our own included, is infallible. The best that can be asked is that every honest effort be made to treat all equally, to protect society, to mete out proper punishment. But court decisions in Germany involving right-wing hate crimes, which have grown in numbers and ferocity since the two Germanies were unified three years ago, point to an ominous pattern. Some in Germany say the relative youth of many of those convicted has prompted leniency from judges. Others suggest the problem is that Germany’s judiciary, unlike this country’s, is not a co-equal and independent branch of government but an instrument of the state, and thus greatly susceptible to political influences.

Tens of thousands of German have taken to the streets on several occasions to express their outrage over attacks on foreigners. But such welcome popular expressions of concern are no substitute for a legal system that insists on tough sentences for heinous crimes. West Germany showed that its judicial systems could deal firmly with threats from the far left. Why can’t a unified Germany deal equally firmly with threats from the far right?