Why should the Free State pay for the process? In August 2023, the Dresden Regional Court decided that the Free State and thus the taxpayer must bear part of the procedural costs, namely the legal fees in the so-called adhesion proceedings. According to the Court Costs Act (Section 2 Paragraph 1), the state is exempt from court costs. During the trial, the Free State filed an adhesion lawsuit against the five defendants. The country wanted to assert civil claims against the defendants – i.e. to enforce damages.
But the Free State had only limited success with its application for adhesion in the criminal proceedings. Although the chamber found that the Free State was “basically” entitled to compensation, the amount was not decided in the criminal proceedings. It was said that this was far too time-consuming and time-consuming. If the Free State wants to obtain financial compensation, i.e. a so-called title, it would have to conduct a separate civil process.