The judge threatened to issue an arrest warrant for influencing the witness

Witnesses affected?

The judge threatened Christina Block with an arrest warrant

Things are getting heated in the trial of steakhouse heiress Christina Block: The judge issued a stern warning — and the defense wants to delay the trial.

The presiding judge at Christina Block’s trial responded forcefully to Christina Block on Tuesday and “clearly” threatened prison. The bench will not hesitate to issue arrest warrants if it “is convinced that pressure is being exerted on witnesses.”

The court heard that Christina Block tried to persuade witnesses in Israel not to testify, Judge Isabel Hildebrandt said. Therefore, the source of the information is a translator who monitors the communications of the only one of the seven defendants who have so far confessed. 36-year-old Tal S. Israel detained in Hamburg; the translator had told a detective about the wiretapped conversations.

Tal S. said in court Tuesday that he had called his father and a friend in Israel. They reported suspected influence. But it’s not clear how they know. It could be that it’s just a rumor.

Block’s lawyer, Ingo Bott, confirmed that his client had contacts with Israel. But this is not dangerous. He only hopes that a sick elderly person can recover quickly. “‘Get well soon!’ “It’s not as dark as you would expect with a serious illness,” Bott said.

Businesswoman Christina Block is accused of giving orders to kidnap two of her four children from the care of her ex-husband, who lives in Denmark, on New Year’s Eve 2023/24 during a custody dispute. The daughter of the founder of the “Block House” restaurant chain, Eugen Block, denied this.

Block’s then-10-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter of Block and her ex-husband, Stephan Hensel, were said to have been taken to Germany by an Israeli security company. Christina Block claims her company was only assigned to check IT security at the Grand Elysée Hotel. The Israeli side carried out its own repatriation operation.

On the 21st day of the trial, the court announced the extension of the trial which had been running since July. The new date has been set to June 2026.

It may take longer to reach a decision: the defense applied for the main proceedings to be postponed to Tuesday. Due to the subsequent formal seizure of all files on the defendants’ 34 phones, mobile devices, and laptops by the regional court, the file inventory grew by more than a terabyte of data. The scope was so large that the defense needed a stay to prepare adequately, explained Block’s partner Gerhard Delling’s defense attorney, David Rieks.