Overview
- Judges held that sit-ins are in principle covered by the right to assembly yet can be punished when aimed at preventing or grossly disrupting a permitted demonstration.
- The decision leaves the 2019 conviction and €200 fine for a 2015 Freiburg sit-in intact after lower courts, including the Karlsruhe higher regional court, had upheld the verdict.
- Paragraph 21 of the Assembly Act, which allows fines or imprisonment of up to three years for preventing, breaking up, or grossly disturbing lawful assemblies, was deemed constitutional.
- The court stressed that one group’s demonstration rights cannot be used to stop others from exercising the same right, giving precedence to the original assembly’s ability to proceed.
- Rights advocates criticized unresolved questions, including whether criminal liability requires police to dissolve a blockade first, with the 49-page decision not defining this threshold.