“True skill lies in the ability to conceal one’s own skill.”
François de La Rochefoucauld
Crime, as a socially dangerous phenomenon, is often described as a disease afflicting society. It cannot be eliminated entirely, but state action should aim to substantially reduce its level. Public and government practice has spent many years developing methods, approaches, and tools for combating crime. Given the rise in cybercrime, police forces across many European countries, including Germany, are continuously refining their methods for detecting and prosecuting online offenses. Police agencies have set up dedicated units to deal with internet crime. Hundreds of police officers and intelligence-service staff constantly monitor online spaces to identify potential offenders. In addition, the police publish special guides and brochures explaining the legal aspects of online activity in detail, along with recommendations on how to conduct oneself and how to protect against possible online threats. Beyond these measures, police agencies in every German state maintain their own websites dedicated to internet crime, always including addresses and phone numbers where reports and complaints can be filed. It is well known that a kind of “black market” exists online, where weapons, explosives, and narcotics can be purchased. Unfortunately, in practice, only drug dealers tend to be successfully prosecuted for such conduct. Germany’s then-Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, sought to revise the provisions of the Criminal Code to close loopholes and inconsistencies in the law, with the updated law intended to apply to both sellers and buyers of prohibited goods.
Criminal law is one of the core practice areas at our law firm. The task of a lawyer working in this field is to defend clients — including those who genuinely broke the law, or who stand accused of doing so on various grounds. A lawyer is obligated to carefully analyze every significant circumstance of a criminal case in order to protect the accused from an unlawfully brought charge. Where a criminal offense genuinely did take place, legal support consists of verifying that every requirement of the law has been observed, and that any sentence imposed strictly matches the offense, taking all circumstances into account. One example of our firm’s professional work was the acquittal of a client — a Kazakh national permanently residing in Germany — on a charge that could have carried a sentence of up to five years’ imprisonment.
Client Story: Charged With Arms Trafficking
Our client was a man who had moved to Germany from Kazakhstan more than ten years earlier — let’s call him Oleg. At the time he came to our firm for legal help, he was under investigation on suspicion of a serious offense and in pre-trial detention. He was suspected of an unlawful act under §52 of the German Weapons Act (German: Waffengesetz, WaffG) — namely, possessing and trading weapons without the required license. Significantly, if found guilty by the court, Oleg faced up to five years’ imprisonment. However, according to the client himself — who, it should be noted, had already faced liability for online fraud on a number of prior occasions — he had never dealt in the possession or sale of weapons.
The Investigation: Wiretapping, Surveillance, and a Buyer’s Complaint
Our firm’s lawyer, who specializes in criminal law, carefully listened to the client and immediately requested the case file from the police to establish every relevant circumstance. It turned out the Berlin police had already been working on uncovering this offense for several months. The trigger for opening criminal proceedings and launching the investigation was a complaint from a German citizen who had been a customer on one of the websites registered under our client’s name. The man who filed the complaint stated that he had been offered weapons for sale on the site. As evidence for his complaint, he produced a printed chat transcript with a representative of the online shop, which included a photo of a firearm along with its price. According to this upstanding German resident, upon seeing the item offered for sale, he went straight to the police without engaging in any further discussion with the seller.
The information was immediately passed on to the relevant department of the prosecutor’s office, where, given the potential consequences of such illegal activity, the complaint was taken extremely seriously. First, the identity of the site’s owner — who, according to the complainant, was trading weapons — was established. A charge was then brought against our client for possessing weapons at an unknown location for further sale without the required license. To track the suspect and gather evidence, prosecutors first began wiretapping his phone calls and monitoring his correspondence. The man was in fairly frequent contact regarding various business matters, including mentions of upcoming deals to buy and sell some unspecified “goods,” but no direct confirmation was ever found that Oleg was trading weapons.
To gather further leads and evidence, our client was placed under physical surveillance. Unaware of any of this, Oleg went about his ordinary life — running his online business, meeting with friends and business partners, and going to doctor’s appointments. Prosecutors took several photographs of the suspect and used them to establish his identity. As it turned out, the man had been using a fake ID and posing as someone other than who he actually was. This individual, hiding under a false name, had already come to the attention of law enforcement and the courts on several occasions and had prior convictions for fraud involving the sale of goods in online shops. Consequently, in addition to the suspicion of arms trafficking, criminal proceedings were opened against our client on a charge of using forged documents.
The Arrest: Correspondence With a Friend in St. Petersburg
The key turning point that led to a decision to arrest the subject of this case was Oleg’s correspondence with a friend living in St. Petersburg. In this correspondence, he had “had the misfortune” to mention that in ten days he would be flying to see her and staying for a long time — possibly for good. Prosecutors took this as a sign that our client might flee the country and never return to Germany. To prevent the accused from evading justice, an arrest warrant was issued, and two days after this fateful exchange in the chat, Oleg was arrested and taken into custody.
The Lawyer’s Work: No Evidence of Arms Trafficking
To defend the client, the lawyer, after analyzing the entire case file, prepared a petition to the prosecutor’s office. The petition’s central argument was that the investigation had no reliable evidence that Oleg had actually engaged in possessing or trading weapons. Indeed, no weapons were found during the search of his apartment, and neither his correspondence nor his phone calls contained any direct references to the sale of goods prohibited from free circulation. There was also no other evidence indicating our client’s involvement in this serious offense. The printed chat transcript, provided by the witness in the case who claimed to have been offered weapons, did not constitute reliable evidence that the offense had actually been committed. Moreover, it was, in essence, the only piece of evidence even suggesting an attempt to commit such an offense — plainly insufficient grounds for a well-founded indictment.
At the same time, it had to be acknowledged that the elements of the offense of document forgery had indeed been established. This offense is governed by section 267 of the German Criminal Code (German: Strafgesetzbuch, StGB) — document forgery. Possible liability includes a fine or imprisonment for up to 5 years. Under German law, document forgery covers both the forging of official documents directly and making any alterations to them, as well as presenting such documents to public officials where the person is aware that the document is fake.
The lawyer therefore requested in the petition:
- that the criminal case on suspicion of arms trafficking be discontinued under §170 of the German Code of Criminal Procedure (German: Strafprozessordnung, abbreviated StPO) for lack of sufficient grounds;
- that the client’s pre-trial detention be replaced with a measure proportionate to the severity of the offense, and that he be released pending the conclusion of the investigation, subject to a travel ban.
Outcome: Released From Custody
Both requests set out in our firm’s petition were granted — the criminal case on suspicion of possessing and trading weapons was discontinued at the investigative stage. The client’s pre-trial detention was replaced with a more lenient measure, proportionate to the danger posed by the alleged offense. Oleg was released from custody and could await the trial hearing as a free man. Naturally, the lawyer will also represent the client’s interests at the trial hearing, for which active preparations are now underway. If necessary, the court’s decision will be appealed to a higher court, should sufficient grounds arise based on all the circumstances of the case and the proceedings. We have every reason to be confident that a well-chosen defense strategy, making full use of every tool available within the law, will fully protect our client’s interests. Only time will tell how events in this case will ultimately unfold.
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