Fifteen Months of Hearings, and a Charge of Ordering Her Children's Abduction

The BBC reports that for 15 months a high-security courtroom in Hamburg has been hearing the case of Christina Block, who is accused of ordering the abduction of her children. She has not been convicted; the case is the accusation and the courtroom built around it, not a verdict — indeed, the long record of hearings is what the report conveys about where the matter stands now, more than a year in with no resolution there to see in it — the duration itself being the only concrete fact on offer beyond the charge, which is the strange part. Abduction is the word usually attached to strangers; here it is alleged against a parent, and the proceedings are being conducted in a courtroom secured for the purpose. Fifteen months of hearings on a single accusation says something about how slowly a case of this shape moves through the courts.