Overview
- The Berlin regional court convicted the 25-year-old former fellow student of dangerous bodily injury and set a two-year-and-six-month prison term after finding no firm proof of an antisemitic motive.
- Prosecutors continue to argue the assault targeted the victim for being Jewish and asked for two years and eleven months, while the defense sought a suspended sentence.
- The new ruling departs from the April 2025 first-instance verdict, which called the attack an “antisemitic violent excess” and imposed a three-year sentence.
- The assault in February 2024 began with a punch and a follow-up kick to the head and left Lahav Shapira with facial fractures and a brain bleed.
- In a separate case in March 2026, an administrative court threw out Shapira’s suit against the Free University of Berlin, saying the law’s duty to prevent discrimination does not create an individual right to sue.