Overview

• The trial opens July 11 at the Hamburg Regional Court with seven defendants, including Block and her partner Gerhard Delling, charged on April 25 with aggravated child abduction.
• Fourteen-year-old Klara Block has signaled she will testify against her mother, accusing her of harsh disciplinary methods and recounting trauma from the January 2024 kidnapping.
• Prosecutors rely on NDR research indicating covert plans to smuggle the children by boat across the German-Danish border were formulated as early as 2021.
• If found guilty, Block and Delling face up to ten years in prison under German law for orchestrating a cross-border abduction of minors.
• Block’s defense denies she ordered any kidnapping, contending the children were manipulated by their father and that any return plans were voluntary.