Overview
- Three Hamburg Jugendamt employees are slated to testify about the years-long custody conflict, with the hearing marking the trial’s first session of 2026.
- One youth-welfare worker who visited the children after the abduction was previously investigated for alleged complicity but prosecutors closed the case for lack of evidence.
- Early case files and today’s testimony focus on findings that the mother was not an acute danger, mounting concerns about the father’s role in alienation, and unresolved warnings from 2022.
- The court plans further key testimony this month after December sessions with the alleged Israeli organizer; the self-described ringleader’s next appearance remains unscheduled and crown witness David Barkay is expected to resume on January 19.
- Proceedings continue with one Israeli co-defendant still in pretrial detention after a 2024 arrest in Cyprus, while a bid to merge related charges against the father was rejected and any separate case would run apart from this trial.