OFF THE WIRE
Berlin - German courts have the legal right to forbid “Hells Angels” members from wearing their motorcycle jackets with “death's head” insignia during trials as these could intimidate those involved, Germany's top court ruled on Wednesday.
The Constitutional Court said wearing them was an “unacceptable showing of force that might intimidate and threaten the parties to the proceeding” and a ban was a “preventive condition for a safe and unimpaired trial”.
The court overruled a complaint lodged by Hell Angels' member Rayk F., convicted by a civil court in Potsdam to one year prison for complicity in extortion in 2010.
He had forced the owner of a tattoo parlor to “cooperate” with Hells Angels, threatening to snap off his head and intimidating him by placing a dead sheep on his doorstep.
Rayk F. complained his trial was unfair since the presiding judge, in consultation with the police, prohibited him and his Hells Angels backers from wearing their motorcycle club's jackets at the trial. - Reuters
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/german-courts-ban-hell-s-angels-jackets-1.1284100
