That doesn’t happen every day either: the regional court in Linz dialed the police emergency number on Wednesday morning. The trigger was a trial against a corona measure critic. Because individual spectators could no longer enter the courtroom, they threatened to storm the building.
About 70 fans of the accused wanted to attend the trial on Wednesday. After around 40 spectators were admitted, the court closed: the hearing room was full. As a result, individual visitors who were no longer admitted told the security staff that they would storm the building, according to court spokesman Walter Eichinger. So the police were called for help. The operation went peacefully. “Everything went peacefully,” the police operations manager reported afterwards to the “Krone”. However, the executive could not find out who was responsible for organizing the rush to court: all visitors stated that they were here as individuals. According to the police, everything remained calm. Accusation of defamation While his “fans” were waiting outside, a 48-year-old journalist had to answer to the judge inside. In autumn last year, in his online medium critical of corona measures, he thought of the Federal President with the following words, among other things: “A man who tramples on the constitution.” The public prosecutor’s office then accused him of defamation. The accused pleaded “not guilty” with reference to freedom of the press – and was right. The acquittal is not yet final.
