(LifeSiteNews) — A German judge who lifted mask mandates, distance rules, and mandatory COVID testing in two schools has been given a two-year suspended sentence. 

Family court judge Christian Dettmar will be sent to prison if he violates the terms of his probation.

German authorities started an investigation into Dettmar in 2021 after he had ruled that children in two schools in Weimar must not be forced to wear masks, keep their distance from other people, or take COVID tests. Dettmar was suspended due to the accusations against him in January 2023. 

RELATED: German court suspends judge who ruled against COVID testing, mask mandates in schools 

In his decision, Dettmar argued that the school mandates are a “danger to the mental, physical, or psychological well-being” of children. He provided evidence and arguments for his verdict, which was over 100 pages long. 

The Erfurt Regional Court has now sentenced Dettmar to two years’ probation for obstruction of justice. 

The defendant had reached a verdict “that he had intended from the outset,” the presiding judge argued in his decision, according to a report from Der Spiegel. Dettmar is accused of actively initiating the court case at the Weimar Local Court, where he ruled against school mask mandates. 

Dettmar’s lawyer, Dr. Gerhard Strate, criticized the fact that the court investigated only whether Dettmar had been “impartial” but did not consider if his ruling on COVID-related mandates in schools had been correct. He also announced that they would appeal the decision. 

Dettmar’s ruling striking down COVID mandates in schools had caused international headlines. A higher court subsequently overturned his decision on the grounds that a family court is not entitled to issue instructions to public institutions; only administrative courts are allowed to do so. The Thuringian Higher Regional Court and the Federal Court of Justice affirmed that family courts do not have jurisdiction to make such decisions. 

However, according to Erik Rusch from Epoch Times Germany, this legal interpretation is debatable among experts. 

“If this interpretation of the law were to be followed consistently, sexual assaults against children in private schools, for example, could be attacked and stopped on the basis of Section 1666 of the German Civil Code (BGB) for endangering the welfare of children, but not in public schools,” Rusch explains. “According to this case law, victims of sexual violence in state schools would have to engage in lengthy administrative proceedings.” 

READ: German study links forced masking to increased stillbirths, cognitive issues in children 

Case against Dettmar sends a message to others in power who fight COVID measures

German journalist Boris Reitschuster pointed out that the case against Dettmar was probably meant to destroy his professional career and to send a message to others in positions of power who fight against COVID measures.

If the higher courts confirm the verdict against Dettmar, he will no longer be allowed to work as a judge and will lose his entire pension.  

“This could also have been the goal of the whole procedure – to send a clear signal that resistance to absurd coercive state measures can destroy your life,” Reitschuster wrote. 

University professor and well-known COVID critic Stefan Homburg echoed that sentiment, stating, “One can understand the sentence against Judge Dettmar only as a threat against all those who oppose the woke ruling class.” Homburg pointed out that even Germany’s health minister, Karl Lauterbach, has admitted that he does not know if mask mandates had a positive effect. 

“The trial is also explosive because the judiciary has so far almost exclusively taken action against critics of the Corona measures, as well as doctors and judges who opposed them,” Reitschuster argued in his opinion piece. “The judiciary spares those responsible for these measures as well as the agitators who stirred up massive prejudice and hatred against the unvaccinated.” 

Recently, another critic of the draconian response to COVID, American author C.J. Hopkins, was convicted by a German court for allegedly “disseminating propaganda, the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization” for comparing the draconian COVID regime to the Nazi era. 

“C.J.’s situation is, openly, a case of a government seeking to criminalize criticism of itself, the dumbest and least defensible version of censorship possible,” journalist Matt Taibbi wrote about the case. 

READ: American author convicted in Germany for comparing COVID regime to Nazi era