Overview
- Prosecutors say masked men seized a 13-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother on New Year’s Eve 2023/24 in Denmark and brought them to Germany, and seven defendants including Christina Block are on trial at the Landgericht Hamburg.
- David Barkay, the alleged head of the Israeli security firm, testified over nine trial days that he had served in an Israeli intelligence service but declined to give operational details and repeatedly cited memory gaps and language problems.
- Barkay told the court he was first hired to surveil the father’s family for the custody dispute and later became involved in a so-called recovery action, according to his testimony reported by multiple outlets.
- Defense lawyers sharply rejected Barkay’s account as self-serving, denied key meetings he described and insisted Christina Block did not order or know of the alleged plan.
- The prosecution has said Barkay could face indictment later, the case involves cross-border evidence and diplomatic sensitivity because an Israeli witness was granted safe conduct, and the trial will continue with further defense statements.