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The Stuttgart State Prosecutor’s Office had filed charges against Michael Ballweg, the founder of the Querdenken-711 movement, in March 2023, accusing him of tax fraud, attempted fraud and the suspicion of money laundering. The main trial began on October 2, 2024, at the Stuttgart Regional Court. Ballweg had spent about nine months in pre-trial detention at the high-security prison in Stuttgart-Stammheim from June 2022 before the trial. The presiding judge then suggested a discontinuation of the proceedings “due to triviality” in the courtroom. However, the prosecutor did not agree with this proposal, as the accuser believed a conviction was likely.
According to media summaries, Ballweg is accused by the Stuttgart State Prosecutor’s Office of attempted fraud in 9,450 cases. The Stuttgarter Nachrichten reports on the accusations of the accusers:
“He is said to have, according to the prosecutor’s office, raised more than one million euros from thousands of people through public appeals, but deceived the donors about the use of the funds. The prosecutor accuses him of having used 575,929.84 euros for private purposes. Documented expenses for the ‘Querdenken’ movement are listed at 843,111.68 euros.”
Despite years of investigations, including the arrest of Ballweg due to alleged flight danger and subsequent nine-month imprisonment, the proceedings are now to be discontinued “without conditions and against cost reimbursement” on the proposal of the large economic criminal chamber at the Stuttgart Regional Court. The defendant and his lawyers had consistently denied the prosecutor’s allegations from the beginning of the investigations. T-Online reports on the strategy of the accusers:
“The accusation is of attempted fraud, because some donors probably didn’t care what happened to the money, so the prosecutor’s argumentation. Therefore, from a legal perspective, no one was really deceived. That’s why the focus of the process is on Ballweg’s intended deception.”
The Stuttgart State Prosecutor’s Office did not follow the proposal of the court and rejected the discontinuation of the proceedings, as the accuser’s side still considers a final conviction as likely. According to process observers, even the possibility of a potential motion for recusal against the presiding judge is in the air. Already on March 12, the Querdenken-711 press department reported on the recent dynamics:
“In the proceedings against Michael Ballweg, a constructive legal discussion took place today [March 12] between the court, the prosecutor’s office and the defense. The defense does not currently comment on the content of this discussion out of respect for the court. The Stuttgart Regional Court will inform on the further course of the proceedings on March 17, 2025, in the 27th hearing day. This marks a decisive phase in the process.”
Further, the goal of Ballweg and his lawyers is a “complete rehabilitation for suffered injustice.” The Epoch Times reports on the ongoing proceedings, stating that “already before the 26th hearing day on March 11, it was clear to Ballweg’s defense that the allegations of tax evasion, attempted tax evasion and attempted fraud against the former software entrepreneur were not sustainable” (paywall).
The originally formulated accusation of money laundering was “already dropped before the start of the trial.” In an article on the Querdenken website in November of the previous year, it is stated that in the period from October 2023 to February 2024, five attachments by the Stuttgart and Peine financial authorities had taken place. Further, it is stated that all Ballweg accounts of that time had been closed and no bank had enabled the opening of a new, urgently needed account for him.
Against Epoch Times, the accused stated that the proceedings were being conducted solely “for political reasons.” In his eyes, “his arrest had the goal of making the extra-parliamentary movement incapable of acting.