Criminal revision: validity of rejection of motion for recusal against presiding judge under § 338 Nr. 3 StPO

The Federal Court of Justice (5th Criminal Senate) dismissed the defendant's appeal as unfounded, upholding the Landgericht Berlin's judgment of 7 January 2022 and ordering the defendant to bear the costs of the appeal and the necessary expenses incurred by the auxiliary claimants. The dispute involved a criminal prosecution where the defendant challenged the lower court's decision through revision, specifically alleging a procedural violation regarding the presiding judge's impartiality. The court determined that no legal error to the defendant's detriment existed; decisively, it found that the defendant's motion for recusal (Ablehnungsgesuch) against the presiding judge, which had been rejected by the lower court, was not wrongly rejected under § 338 Nr. 3 StPO (Code of Criminal Procedure), thereby invalidating the claim of a procedural defect that would warrant reversal.