IHRG attorneys will be representing Bert Brause and his wife at their July 24, 2008 hearing in criminal court in Germany.  The Brauses have been charged with intentional child abuse.  If they are found guilty they could face up to two years in prison.

German government officials have charged the Brauses with intentional child abuse because the Brauses refused to put their children in the public school.  They have continued to home school their children.

For well over a year the Brause family has been suffering persecution from the German government for the sole crime of home schooling.

German government officials use the compulsory education law to forbid any one in Germany from legally home schooling.  This position has made home schooling illegal.  The penalty for home schooling has ranged from fines against the parents, jail time for the parents, taking the children from the family and placing them in foster care, and now potential prison time for the parents.

The Brauses and their children currently live in eastern Germany on the Polish border.  If the legal system fails to protect them the children will be taken and placed in foster care where they will be forced to attend public schools.

When this legal battle began over a year ago, government officials went to court and had the court award the state custody of all the school aged children.  At that time the state did not exercise their custody—leaving the children in the family.  This sounds good, but you have to remember that it means the family has lived with the pressure of knowing that at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all, government officials could show up at their home and take the children away from the family.

It also meant that the Brause family could not freely travel for fear of being accused of kidnapping their own children.

Just a four weeks ago government officials approached Mr. and Mrs. Brause and told them that they had three weeks to put their children into school or the state would take them.  Now they have brought criminal charges against both Mr. and Mrs. Brause.  They are facing the charge of “intentional child abuse.” 

When the Brauses appear in court on July 24, 2008 the IHRG will be there.  Attorneys for the IHRG are already working on the legal strategy which will be unveiled in the days to come.