In the first week of January, I received a letter from the Berlin Immigration Office, informing me that I had lost my right of freedom of movement in Germany, due to allegations around my involvement in the pro-Palestine movement. Since I’m a Polish citizen living in Berlin, I knew that deporting an EU national from another EU country is practically impossible. I contacted a lawyer and, given the lack of substantial legal reasoning behind the order, we filed a lawsuit against it, after which I didn’t think much of it.

I later found out that three other people active in the Palestine movement in Berlin, Roberta Murray, Shane O’Brien and Cooper Longbottom, received the same letters. Murray and O’Brien are Irish nationals, Longbottom is American. We understood this as yet another intimidation tactic from the state, which has also violently suppressed protests and arrested activists, and expected a long and dreary but not at all urgent process of fighting our deportation orders.

Then, at the beginning of March, each of our lawyers received on our behalf another letter, declaring that we are to be given until 21 April to voluntarily leave the country or we will be forcibly removed. The letters cite charges arising from our involvement in protests against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. None of the charges have yet led to a court hearing, yet the deportation letters conclude that we are a threat to public order and national security.

  • albert180@piefed.social
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    6 days ago

    They are not charged because the Staatsanwaltschaft isn’t done with their work yet. The LKA claims they were there and tried to stop the arrests. We will see what kind of evidence they have.

    Did you read the Article?

    There was obviously some pressure to do the deportation process faster, and they should wait for the outcome of the process. But if the accusations turn out to be true, then the “I was deported only for protesting”-Claims are a bit dishonest

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      5 days ago

      This is like listening to a Trump supporter defending Donald Trump for deporting a gay hairdresser to El Salvador. And i mean 100% word for word.

      Germans are defending the Trump style deportation practices without due-process. Which is amazing, because Lemmy does not really have any Trump supporters. Yet on feddit.org people will post these far-right propaganda talking points of deporting people without due-process as if it is completely normal. They will verbatim quote their government propaganda justifying it, even if it makes absolutely no sense and is completely in violation of human rights and even the German law. And they talk like they are the normal ones.

      Really drives home how far into Nazism Germany already is.

    • Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
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      6 days ago

      Your comment:

      for participating in violently occupying a university building, while threatening the staff with axes and metal

      Makes it seem like they occupied the building and made violent threats, I was adding clarification that there is no evidence they did either.

      If the accusations turn out to be true that doesn’t mean that they weren’t deported for protesting, that just means they found a legal excuse to do so. If a cop arrests a black guy wearing a black lives matter shirt for jaywalking, even if the guy was actually jaywalking that doesn’t mean the cop who arrested them wasnt racist.

      We’re talking about motive here which is very hard to prove one way or the other. One thing you can look at though is whether the case looks to be getting special attention by the prosecutors when compared to similar cases. This looks to be the case as it seems this is the first time they’ve done this expedited deportation without charges for an EU citizen.

      • albert180@piefed.social
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        5 days ago

        That was a quote from the Article which itself quoted the Report from the LKA

        that just means they found a legal excuse to do so.

        If the accusations turn out to be true, it’s not “just a legal excuse”. Violently protesting, threatening staff and fucking up University Property is not okay. That’s stuff that lands you in prison

          • TanteRegenbogen@feddit.org
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            5 days ago

            Your hyperbolic use of the word Nazi relativizes it’s meaning. That’s the issue a lot of people have with you.

            Yes, the German state has a lot of problems including unjust deportations. But your polemics are uncalled for.

            • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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              5 days ago

              Starve 2 million people in a concentration camp to death

              You are relativizing the Holocaust!

              Your Nazi government is relativizing the Holocaust by using it as an excuse to commit a new one.

              • TanteRegenbogen@feddit.org
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                5 days ago

                Another strawman, how foreseeable. If what you claim was true, most politicians in the Bundestag would have been to court for violating the law.

                • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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                  5 days ago

                  Your statement literally means

                  “Israel is not committing genocide because if German politicians are supporting Israel committing genocide they would go to jail.”

                  Can I ask you to confirm this is your position?

                  • TanteRegenbogen@feddit.org
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                    5 days ago

                    Looks like you are only going to put words in my mouth, make strawmen and flamebait like last time.

                    And you wonder why you constantly get banned from groups?

        • Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
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          5 days ago

          violently protesting, threatening taff and fucking up university property is not okay. That’s stuff that lands you in prison.

          Again they didn’t do any of that stuff, at worse if the accusations are true they only tried to stop people who did that from getting arrested. How many people are getting deported for just resisting arrest?