Germany: Court orders shutdown of hostel over connection with North Korea

M/S Judges entering courtroom, Berlin
W/S Judges
W/S Attendees
C/U Judges
M/S Lawyer representing City Hostel
W/S Trial
C/U Camera
M/S Attendees
W/S Judges
SOT, Stephan Groscurth, judge (German): The court rejects the claim. The plaintiff bears the costs of the trial. The verdict is provisionally enforceable. The plaintiff can avoid the enforcement by paying a security deposit of 110 per cent of the amount specified in the verdict if the defendant doesn't pay the security deposit. The following decision was taken. The value of the matter of dispute amounts to €456,000."
M/S Defendants
SOT, Dominic Hoerauf, court spokesperson (German): The court has treated this case in a bigger context regarding the question whether there was a need or duty of the municipal authority to intervene. The chairperson argued against an arbitrary decision and for an intervention because important legal values were at stake and, namely, the question whether funds can continue to flow that could potentially serve the nuclear programme [of North Korea]. After all the decision of the authority here served the purpose of exercising a EU regulation which in turn was introduced to impose a UN resolution with the objective of preserving world peace."
W/S Attendees speaking to press
SOT, Alexander von Arretin, lawyer of Otto Warmbier (German): It's a great pleasure [the verdict] and the trust in the rule of law has been reinstated. It was very difficult to explain that there are possibilities to bypass sanctions. Today, we saw that a local authority is capable of exercising EU sanctions and that these sanctions are not a blunt sword. It's extremely pleasurable news."
C/U Press
SOT, Alexander von Arretin, lawyer of Otto Warmbier (German): "It is extremely painful to see your own child dead. And that there are sanctions that have their reasons in these actions by North Korea against their own and foreign people. And that democracies allow these illegal actions for years, since 2017. It's painful."
W/S City Hostel Berlin
C/U City Hostel Berlin sign
M/S Guests entering hostel
C/U Sign of North Korean embassy in Berlin
C/U North Korean flag
W/S City Hostel Berlin and North Korean embassy
SCRIPT
The controversial City Hostel Berlin, operating out of the North Korean embassy building in the German capital, will be shut down, the city's Administrative Court ruled on Tuesday.
The hostel had been renting the North Korean property, violating the UN and EU sanctions, prohibiting any economic co-operation that could finance Pyongyang's atomic weapons programme.
The property located next door to the embassy, was used to host delegations from Pyongyang in the GDR. After the fall of the wall the building was leased to a Turkish hotel operator, bringing a monthly sum worth €38,000 to North Korea.
The legal team of late Otto Warmbier, an American who was jailed in North Korea for alleged propaganda and died soon after being released in a coma, were present at the process as well.
The family's lawyer Alexander von Arretin welcomed the decision. "Trust in the rule of law has been reinstated," von Arretin declared.
"Today, we saw that a local authority is capable of exercising EU sanctions and that these sanctions are not a blunt sword," he added.