Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine by Thorsten Winter Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for Central Hesse and the Wetterau, 22 March 2024

Almost nine months after the violence broke out at the Eritrea Festival in Giessen, the police have largely investigated the events. It wasn’t just Super Recognizer that helped.

The work on the excessive violence at the Eritrea Festival in Giessen in July is almost over. The Central Hesse Police Headquarters identified 679 suspects and opened 457 investigations.

This was announced by the authority at the presentation of the 2023 crime statistics. Among other things, they used ‘super recognizers’, i.e. people with a pronounced ability to recognise faces, in its investigations. These recognizers can even recognise masked people in a crowd. Over the course of the months, the investigators also used artificial intelligence to sift through thousands of hours of video footage.

The success is reflected in the numbers. For comparison: In September there were 300 suspects and 181 investigations. As a spokesman for the F.A.Z. said the use of software saved investigators many hours of tedious viewing of videos and thus accelerated the investigation work.

According to Police Chief Torsten Krückemeier, the police do not know the number of charges and ongoing court cases in connection with the Eritrea festival. However, Krückemeier referred to a case heard in Stuttgart of a defendant who, in addition to the Eritrea Festival in the Baden-Württemberg state capital, also committed a crime in Giessen and has since been convicted.

26 police officers injured at Eritrea festival

On July 8, opponents of the Eritrean government wanted to disrupt the festival organized by the Central Association of Eritreans in Germany and suddenly attacked police officers. 26 officers were injured. All in all, around 1,000 police officers were on duty.

The number of staff was explained by the bad experiences of the previous year. At that time, opponents of the regime also attacked visitors to a concert to which the Eritrean consulate had invited. Violent criminals hit police officers and visitors with iron bars and threw stones and bottles at them. The police headquarters then formed a special Eritrea commission for the first time.

Before the Eritrea Festival this year, investigators discovered calls for violence in Giessen on social media. As a precautionary measure, the district issued a weapons ban zone in parts of the city. Violent criminals traveled to Giessen from Germany and other European countries to disrupt the festival in the Hessenhallen. The police were able to arrest a suspected ringleader before the festival.