The Block trial at the Hamburg Regional Court will last longer than previously planned: according to the court, the criminal division set 15 additional hearing days through to 24 February 2027 on 3 November 2026. A verdict this year is therefore considered unlikely; a decision had originally been envisaged for December 2026. As of 3 November 2026.
The court cited extensive new applications to present evidence and unresolved legal questions as the reason for the series of hearings. The defence lawyer for Christina Block, Ingo Bott, accordingly, filed more than 20 additional applications totalling around 840 pages. These include tabulated analyses of mobile phone geodata, which are intended to support his client’s case. At the same time, there is a dispute over whether seized audio recordings of an interview with one of the children involved, conducted shortly after the incident, may be used at the trial. The Hanseatic Higher Regional Court must decide this question; depending on the outcome, further hearing days may be needed.
The defendant, Christina Block, and six co-defendants are facing charges alleging that, as part of a custody dispute, they commissioned an Israeli security firm to take two minor children from their father’s home in Southern Denmark to Germany. The defence rejects the allegations. According to information available so far, a suspected participant, David Ram Barkay, has given evidence to the public prosecutor’s office; testimony and evidence are being assessed controversially during the trial. The presumption of innocence applies.
The trial has been under way since July 2025 and has been delayed several times. More than 80 hearing days have taken place so far. Alongside the substantive legal examination of abduction of minors procedural questions are to the fore: How should extensive digital analyses be introduced into the taking of evidence, and under what circumstances may media content created outside the proceedings and subsequently seized be used at trial?
For those involved, the decision means a further extension of the proceedings, with additional hearings and coordination of schedules. The course of the proceedings will depend on which of the newly submitted geodata and audio recordings the court deems admissible. The Hanseatic Higher Regional Court is expected to rule again on the use of evidence and any subsequent appeals.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).