Mega case against Dutch robbers starts in German sports hall

• Charlotte Waaijers

  Germany correspondent

There is a stage between the basketball baskets and in front of folded climbing frames, with a wide table on top of it and a number of judges behind it. A scoreboard above their heads to keep track of who is ahead: the home team or the guests.

It is too early in the lawsuit between the German Public Prosecution Service and sixteen mainly Dutch suspects to keep score. They are said to have dozens of explosive attacks in Germany to their name. Today is the first of what is expected to be more than seventy days of hearings planned.

Due to its large size, the case in Bamberg, Bavaria, will not take place in a normal courtroom, but in the gymnasium of the local police training center. The suspects have more than 30 lawyers with them. There also had to be room for the interpreters.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) suspects the group of having committed 27 bombings throughout Germany as a gang. They allegedly stole around three million euros in cash. The explosions also caused 5.5 million euros in damage.

Robbery gangs have shifted their attention to Germany in recent years. Dutch people pay less and less in cash and that is why there are fewer and fewer vending machines. Moreover, they are now well secured, for example with glue that makes banknotes unusable.

Germans still pay with cash, which means there are relatively many more vending machines. These machines are also fuller and are often less well secured or not secured at all. The gangs take advantage of this, although the number of explosive raids in Germany has decreased slightly last year.

The number of explosive raids in Germany, probably involving Dutch people, decreased for the first time in years. There were 367 in 2023, compared to 442 a year earlier.

In this case, the group would have worked from a garage in Roermond. “We suspect that they acted in a very organized manner,” says Public Prosecution Service spokesman Alexander Baum. “Banks were explored in advance. There were explosives makers, people who placed the explosives, getaway car drivers and men who did the logistics.”

They allegedly raced back to the Netherlands with stolen license plates on fast cars. With the help of “secret means”, the Public Prosecution Service says it discovered the trail that led to the Netherlands.

Most lawyers don’t want to give interviews on camera, but Martin Nitschmann does. He can confirm that they see explosive raids in Germany as a very Dutch phenomenon. “Also from my own experience.” He has assisted more suspects in explosive attacks. “The clients usually come from Utrecht and the surrounding area. I don’t know why that is, but it is true.” His own client does not yet want to say whether he pleads guilty or not.

There are different answers to the judge’s question about what the suspects do in their daily lives. Many are car mechanics, informal caregivers or nurses. One suspect has his own cleaning company and another claims to be an ex-footballer.

To prevent the suspects from talking to each other, they are all housed in other prisons throughout Bavaria. According to Nitschmann, this causes a lot of hassle. “My client was about 200 kilometers away. That trip is a problem for me and a problem for him.” To avoid having to be picked up and dropped off more than 70 times from there, he has now been transferred to a prison closer to the courtroom.

Not much substantive could be discussed during the first day of the hearing. Lawyers objected to the large amount of documents. They have not yet been able to go through and discuss them all, with an interpreter and with the suspects. That is why the next hearing day has been moved to May 8. A ruling this year is unlikely.