A court has ruled that the 10 people charged in connection with the deaths of 21 and injury of over 500 at the final Love Parade festival have "no sufficient case to answer"
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German court reopens Love Parade trial
The ten people indicted over the deaths of 21 people at Love Parade 2010 will stand trial after all as a result of a decision by a Dusseldorf court of appeals
By IQ on 25 Apr 2017
Crowds near the entrance to the infamous tunnel at Love Parade 2010
image © Arne Müseler/arne-mueseler.de/CC-BY-SA-3.0
An appeals court has said the ten people charged with 21 deaths at the 2010 Love Parade festival must stand trial, overturning last April’s controversial ruling by a Bremen state court to the contrary.
More than 500 people were also injured on 24 July 2010 in a deadly crush in a tunnel that served as the sole entrance to the now-defunct dance music festival, promoted by Berlin-based Lopavent. Over a million people were reported to have attended, despite the venue – a former goods yard in Duisburg – having a capacity of around 250,000.
Four employees of Lopavent and six of the city of Duisburg were indicted in 2014 on charges including involuntary manslaughter and bodily harm. The state court in Duisburg dismissed the case in April 2016, ruling that insufficient evidence meant “there [was] no sufficient case to answer”, prompting a civil suit from three of the injured.
According to the Associated Press, an appeals court in Dusseldorf said on Monday that there is in fact a “sufficient probability” of convictions, with the Duisburg court having set “overly high demands” of the chances on conviction in making its decision.
The reopened trial will once again take place in Duisburg, but with a new panel of judges.
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