Renouf trial to go ahead on 16th October in Dresden

Lady Renouf's lifelong career as an advertising actress and model included German TV ads for Tchibo coffee – now she will appear as defendant in a Dresden criminal trial

Lady Michèle Renouf's trial will take place next week – Friday 16th October – at the Dresden Amtsgericht (district court).

She is accused under Germany's notorious §130 which defines as criminal Volksverhetzung (public incitement) a wide range of activity that would be perfectly normal in other democracies.

On this occasion the 'criminal conduct' was an impromptu speech by Lady Renouf at a memorial event in Dresden in 2018, commemorating the RAF and USAAF terror bombing of the city and the incineration of countless civilians in February 1945.

RAF Wing Commander Hubert Raymond Allen wrote:
"The final phase of Bomber Command's operations was far and away the worst. Traditional British chivalry and the use of minimum force in war was to become a mockery and the outrages perpetrated by the bombers will be remembered a thousand years hence."
(H.R. Allen, The Legacy of Lord Trenchard (Cassell, 1972), p. 168)

German prosecutors now seek to criminalise memory of that outrage, and have brought a British citizen to trial for the 'crime' of paying tribute to the memory of the dead and for acknowledging the crimes of her own country's leaders.

That's one reason why the trial on 16th October 2020 is so remarkable. Further news and reflections about this case will appear here and on associated social media sites throughout the next fortnight and during the weeks and months to come.