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Germany: Love Parade trial headed for inconclusive end

Jan 17, 2019 | 8:15 AM

BERLIN — The trial of 10 people in Germany over a deadly mass panic at the Love Parade techno music festival in 2010 appears likely to be closed without a formal verdict.

Four event organizers and six city workers went on trial in Duisburg in 2017 on charges including involuntary manslaughter and bodily harm. They’re accused of planning failures and failing to monitor security properly at the event where 21 people died.

Lawyers involved told news agency dpa after a closed-doors meeting Wednesday that the state court wants to close the trial.

Presiding judge Mario Plein said Thursday prosecutors insist on some sanction for the defendants. German law allows prosecutors to drop cases in exchange for conditions such as a fine if the gravity of an offence is sufficiently small.

The statute of limitations looms next year in the slow-moving case.

The Associated Press

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