After an incident with Jérôme Boateng’s security service, the Munich I public prosecutor’s office is investigating several suspected parties. “We have initiated proceedings here on suspicion of violation of the most personal sphere of life through image recordings in accordance with Section 201a of the Criminal Code,” said a spokeswoman for the authorities on Tuesday. She did not want to say how many people the investigation is aimed at. “It will depend largely on what can be seen in the recordings.” The “Bild” newspaper had previously reported on this.

The background is an incident last Friday in the Munich criminal justice center on the second day of the trial against the 2014 soccer world champion for assault. A witness stated in the proceedings that she had been filmed entering the courthouse and felt threatened. Law enforcement officials then determined the personal details of the people allegedly involved in the incident.

The public prosecutor had requested that the personal details be determined on the grounds that a criminal offense or the preparation of a criminal offense could have occurred. The woman, who said in court that she had seen Boateng attack, hit and insult her former girlfriend on a Caribbean vacation, burst into tears on the witness stand. “You’re just afraid,” she said – “that you’ll be threatened or your family will be threatened.”

Boateng denies the allegations. The presumption of innocence applies to him until the final conclusion of the proceedings. After determining the personal details, his lawyers emphasized that a security service, which had already looked after Mr. Boateng at the start of the trial the day before, had only “determined the environment” in order to be able to assess “Boateng’s security situation”. It was a matter of pure “object clarification” and the witness was not specifically filmed and only filmed from behind.

The trial against Boateng is scheduled to continue on November 2 at the Munich I Regional Court.