Attempt to destroy an individual’s existence

Attorney Dr. Reiner Füllmich was spokesman for the Corona Committee and is being treated like a terrorist – the aftermath of a corona policy in Germany that does not tolerate criticism and destroys livelihoods.

Wolfgang Bittner

A criminal trial against the founder and former spokesperson of the Corona Investigation Committee, lawyer Dr. Reiner Füllmich, has been taking place at Göttingen Regional Court since the end of January 2024. He was charged before the Göttingen Regional Court following a complaint alleging misappropriation of donations amounting to over one million euros. Füllmich was arrested in Mexico on October 13, 2023 without an international arrest warrant and extradited to Germany, where he was immediately taken into custody. Since then, he has been in custody in the high-security prison in Rosdorf near Göttingen. From there he is transported to court in handcuffs with a waist belt and ankle cuffs under heavy guard.

After his arrest, photos of the handcuffed defendant were immediately circulated, and some media outlets published one-sided and derisive reports about Füllmich. The Hessische/ Niedersächsische Allgemeine falsely stated: “Göttingen ‘lateral thinker lawyer’ Reiner Füllmich’s license to practice law is withdrawn” (he had deregistered himself); the TAZran the headline “Querdenker Reiner Füllmich – Ex-Kanzlerkandidat vor Gericht” (lateral thinker Reiner Füllmich – ex-chancellor candidate on trial), N-TV described Füllmich as a “corona denier” and the Bild-Zeitung headline read: “This defendant wanted to become chancellor.”

The charges against Füllmich were filed by lawyers Justus Hoffman and Antonia Fischer, both co-founders of the extra-parliamentary Corona Committee, and Marcel Templin, a lawyer from the same law firm, who acted as witnesses to the defendant’s alleged crimes. The third co-founder of the Corona Committee, lawyer Viviane Fischer, also appeared as a witness.

The Corona Committee was founded in mid-2020 by Reiner Füllmich, Viviane Fischer, Antonia Fischer and Justus Hoffmann as an online video podcast to discuss the legal issues that arose during the corona crisis with scientific experts in live sessions. The intention was to bring alternative opinions to the official corona policy, which was perceived as problematic, into the public discourse. The people involved were to be committed to the principles of scientific evidence and conduct an objective discussion without any personal, scientific or economic conflicts of interest.

To this end, a “Stiftung Corona-Ausschuss Vorschalt gUG” [1] was established in August 2020 with the intention of transforming the company into a “Gemeinnützige Stiftung Corona-Ausschuss”, but its registration was delayed due to the recognition of its non-profit status. The shareholders Reiner Füllmich, Viviane Fischer, Antonia Fischer and Justus Hoffmann were also managing directors with power of representation. The work for the committee was expressly intended to be free of charge.

Following an appeal for donations to finance the complex work, more than three million euros have been received in the company’s accounts since 2020. The donors were interested in discussing the measures taken during the coronavirus crisis and receiving more detailed information about the virus; many also donated because of Füllmich’s announcement that he would bring class action lawsuits due to the coronavirus measures. The funds were to be used for the work of the Corona Committee and the planned lawsuits.

The activities of the Corona Committee caused a stir and met with vehement rejection in “statist circles”. As Füllmich feared that his accounts would be frozen due to his political orientation, he bought gold for around one million euros to be on the safe side and, in consultation with Viviane Fischer, had two loans of 200,000 and 500,000 euros transferred to his account for one year. He used further amounts for internal committee support work in his office, for example to answer numerous letters.

Because, in the opinion of Hoffmann and A. Fischer, the accountant appointed by Füllmich, Jens Kuhn, did not provide sufficient documentation, disputes arose in which V. Fischer was also involved. Füllmich was accused of having diverted funds for himself and his law firm without authorization and of not wanting to repay the loans as contractually agreed. The original objective of the committee no longer seemed to play a role; some donors had the impression that the hasbardeurs were now fighting over the loot.

The controversy finally escalated. Hoffmann, A. Fischer and Templin accused Füllmich of having threatened and slandered them. He claimed that they were damaging the “resistance movement” against the coronavirus measures and merely wanted to enrich themselves with the committee, especially as they were “broke” with their law firm.

In addition, Hoffman had felt hurt “because of his ethnicity” because Füllmich had “compared totalitarian aspects of the measures with the time after 1933 ”. It was also to be feared that Füllmich, who at the time was a board member and candidate for chancellor of the party “Die Basis” and enjoyed a great reputation “in the milieu of the lateral thinkers’ scene ‘, which ’began to radicalize at a high speed in large parts also due to the influence of the accused”, could possibly “call for violence against them ‘ beyond his ’previous threats ”.

A committee meeting was convened without Füllmich, at which he was excluded from future work, although he was, so to speak, the face of the Corona Committee. He was also excluded as a shareholder of the foundation shortly afterwards. On September 2, 2022, charges were then filed against him with the public prosecutor’s office in Göttingen. The allegations were: Misappropriation of substantial funds (embezzlement pursuant to Section 266 of the German Criminal Code), embezzlement, completed fraud, attempted fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, misappropriation of wages, aggravated extortion, incitement to receiving stolen goods.

On 17 November 2023, the public prosecutor’s office brought charges against Reiner Füllmich before the Economic Criminal Chamber at Göttingen Regional Court for 18 criminal offenses, two of which were admitted for the opening of the main proceedings: Embezzlement pursuant to Section 266 StGB with regard to the loans of EUR 200,000 and EUR 500,000. Numerous witnesses were named by the public prosecutor’s office, as well as documents and objects of inspection.

This was the beginning of a lengthy trial, during the course of which monstrosities came to light. It turned out that Füllmich had been abducted in Mexico on October 13, 2023. The following email was sent to the public prosecutor:

“Good afternoon Mr. John, as of now the plan is to lure Reiner Füllmich to the consulate under the pretext that he still has to correct a signature in his passport and then have him arrested by the migration authorities. A date has not yet been set, probably week 36 or 37.”

The public prosecutor did not comment on this, whereupon Füllmich confirmed: “Yes, it was a kidnapping.” He reproached the public prosecutor: “As I can now see from the file, you neither observed the principle of ‘audiatur et altera pars’ – listen to the other side – nor did you make use of the principle to be particularly observed when applying Section 266 of the Criminal Code, namely to investigate not only incriminating but also exonerating. This did not happen here, no exculpatory material was sought in any way whatsoever.”[3]

Füllmich considers the accusations against him to be a malicious campaign. He is appalled that he has been secretly investigated for more than a year and that there has been a “dedicated line” from the complainants to the public prosecutor’s office, all without him being granted a single hearing. He added that the fact that his wife’s account had also been seized was harassment, leaving them both without money. He added that the complainants Antonia Fischer and Justus Hoffmann had hardly taken part in the Corona Committee’s negotiations at all, and that their interest was more of a financial nature.

Defense lawyer Katja Wörmer explained that there was a suspicion that the domestic secret service and the public prosecutor’s office had worked together. She had noticed a clear “eagerness to incriminate” in the witness Justus Hoffmann when he testified in court that the day of the defendant’s arrest had been the best day for him and that everything had been done to ensure that the arrest could be carried out. In her opinion, Reiner Füllmich was being held in custody “because he is a critic of the coronavirus measures”. The transfer from Rosdorf prison to the district court in handcuffs with a waist belt and ankle cuffs is disproportionate and an obvious humiliation.

The conditions of detention for Füllmich are difficult. He has one hour a day in the yard, visiting time is limited to three hours a month, visits must be announced in advance and telephone calls to the outside world must be approved. His mail is checked and neither his cell phone nor laptop are allowed. After a demonstration outside the prison in mid-June 2024, further increased security measures were ordered and Füllmich was isolated for allegedly giving legal advice to fellow inmates or inciting them. An application for relief from detention and another for release from pre-trial detention with an electronic ankle monitor were rejected by the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court.

An oddity in the trial is that the public prosecutor John exchanged numerous emails with the complainants and spoke to them very often on the phone, which is absolutely unusual. It is also extremely dubious that the proceeds of 1.15 million euros from the sale of Füllmich’s house in Göttingen, from which he wanted to repay the loans to the foundation, ended up in Templin’s account. The defense lawyer argued: “The money in question is there, just not with the defendant, but with Templin, the person who filed the complaint,” who apparently does not want to hand it over. However, the court has not yet investigated this.

In the meantime, the gold purchased by Füllmich had been received by the witness Viviane Fischer. It was deposited with a gold dealer in the names of Reiner Füllmich and Viviane Fischer for further safekeeping. How the accumulated donations are to be dealt with after the conclusion of the current trial and any further trials is currently uncertain.

As a further scandal in these strange proceedings, defense lawyer Christoph Miseré introduced a secret service dossier from August 24, 2021, which had been leaked to him, into the trial at the beginning of April 2024. He read out the contents in an interview:

“An analysis should be carried out to assess the possibilities of a declaration of incompatibility denying Reiner Füllmich the right to hold political office due to proven anti-democratic tendencies. The initiation of criminal proceedings based on all the evidence against Reiner Füllmich must be prepared. This includes cooperation with the public prosecutor’s office and the preparation of charges in the event of demonstrable violations of the law. Any necessary constructions must be weighed up and suitable third parties recruited. The activities of Reiner Füllmich represent a complex challenge for the security authorities that require a coordinated and multi-layered response. The implementation of the recommended measures should help to prevent his political viability and protect the security and democratic values of the Federal Republic of Germany.”[4]

In the interview, Miseré commented on the fact that the proceeds from the sale of Füllmich’s house were apparently unlawfully in the possession of the complainant Templin, saying that they had “killed two birds with one stone” and that neither Füllmich nor the inconvenient Corona Committee could now dispose of the money. And he added that Templin worked in an environment in which there were people who collaborated with the BKA and secret services.

It was always said that the proceedings against Reiner Füllmich were not a political trial, but the intensive contact between the complainants and public prosecutor John, the email to him quoted above and the dossier from the secret service introduced into the trial – assuming it was correct – made these proceedings highly political, albeit not officially. Even taking into account that unusual transactions with the donations took place and that Füllmich may have disappointed many donors who paid up to 800 euros for the intended class actions,[6] the trial against him appears to be disproportionate and, due to various acts of influence, highly questionable from a legal point of view.

As with the months-long imprisonment of Michael Ballweg, the organizer of the large-scale demonstrations against the coronavirus measures in Stuttgart and Berlin in 2020, or the large-scale campaign against Ken Jebsen, the publisher of the now defunct internet platform KenFM, which had a wide reach at the time, an attempt is apparently being made to destroy Reiner Füllmich’s existence. A verdict has not yet been reached.

The writer and publicist Dr. Wolfgang Bittner is the author of numerous books, including “Die Eroberung Europas durch die USA” and “Deutschland – verraten und verkauft”. The above article is partly an excerpt from the book “Niemand soll hungern, ohne zu frieren”, Verlag zeitgeist, 2024.

Notes

1 The non-profit entrepreneurial company (gUG) is a special form of GmbH.

2 Cited as advertisement from September 2, 2022

3.. Read out by Füllmich after inspection of the files in the court proceedings.

4 Cited as www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRykWZPHa6w (10.4.2024)

5 Ibid.

6 Füllmich states that he wanted to keep the loan funds safe because of the risk of accounts being closed or confiscated by state authorities, as had happened in other cases. Hence the gold purchase. He also tried – unfortunately unsuccessfully – to file class actions.