court trial against me - the outcome

[Lionel Elie Mamane]

On Wed, Nov 14, 2007 at 03:22:29PM +0100, Mirko Thiesen wrote:

> In June the local police informed me about preliminary proceedings
> against me by asking me (by mail) to "visit" them. (...) but since I
> hadn't done anything I followed the general advice in such
> situations: You have the right to remain silent. Use it.

> In early September I received a penalty order ("Strafbefehl") - from
> the court. A judge found me guilty of (...). I was sentenced to pay
> a fine of 500 EUR.

A judge found you guilty without hearing from you, nor summoning you
to a trial? That sounds like a ... dangerous procedure. Well, I
suppose you could see it as equivalent to an offer by the public
ministry to settle. Maybe. I'm not sure.

> They offered me to dismiss the actual court trial according to
> paragraph 153 StPO which is not the same as an acquittal (no
> "Freispruch") which I eventually accepted.

My German is not that fresh anymore, but it seems to say that if your
guilt is low and they don't find any interest for society at large to
prosecute you, they can choose not to prosecute. Is that what that
paragraph says?

-- 
Lionel