Documentation Medical Freedom of Conscience
Documentation since 2021

When Conscience Is Punished

Doctors who remain true to their Hippocratic oath, and medical scientists who place scientific truth above political pressure, are persecuted, suspended and silenced worldwide. We document their cases.

34
Documented Cases
4
Countries Affected
32
Convictions

When medical conscience is punished more harshly than violent crime

In Germany, doctors are being sentenced to years in prison not because they harmed patients, but because they examined them and certified what was medically obvious: that a mask is contraindicated in severe asthma. That a vaccination should not be administered with a known autoimmune disease. That the duty of medical care must be placed above a political regulation.

Two years and nine months in prison was the sentence for a doctor who issued mask exemptions after individual examinations with documented indications. In the same period, a German court sentenced a prosecutor who had raped his own eight-year-old son to one and a half years suspended. One must place these two verdicts side by side to understand which values a society actually protects, and which it abandons.

The message to the medical profession is unmistakable: whoever opposes the political consensus, even on the basis of a medical examination, even to protect the patient, will be existentially destroyed. Loss of medical licence. Practice closure. House search. Prison.

And those who are not imprisoned are silenced in other ways. Hundreds of doctors have spent years in a state of legal limbo: their cases are neither dismissed nor heard. They are trapped in a grey zone where any public statement can be deemed prejudicial to proceedings. Those who defend themselves risk an escalation of charges. Those who remain silent are forgotten. It is hard not to see calculation in this: the mere existence of open proceedings disciplines more reliably than any verdict.

This platform documents what must not be forgotten. Every single case, so that individual cases become a complete picture and silence becomes an indictment.

Why This Website Exists

Letter to Nina Warken, Federal Minister of Health
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health

“More than 1,000 German doctors and thousands of their patients are currently being criminally prosecuted and punished for granting exemptions from wearing masks and from Covid-19 vaccinations during the pandemic.”

“Reports from Germany show that the government is pushing aside patient autonomy and restricting people’s ability to act according to their own beliefs in medical decisions.”

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health
Response
Nina Warken, Federal Minister of Health (CDU)

“During the Corona pandemic, there was at no time an obligation for doctors to carry out Covid-19 vaccinations. Anyone who did not want to offer vaccinations for medical, ethical or personal reasons was neither liable to prosecution nor had to fear sanctions.”

Criminal prosecution had occurred exclusively in cases of fraud and forgery, such as the issuing of false vaccination certificates or fake mask exemptions.

— Nina Warken, Federal Minister of Health (CDU)

The Reality

The official narrative obscures what is actually happening: hundreds of doctors still stand before the courts today, years after the pandemic ended. Many of them acted in good conscience, issued medical certificates and supported their patients’ individual health decisions. They were charged, convicted and are serving multi-year prison sentences.

What is officially classified as “fraud and forgery” was in many cases nothing more than the exercise of medical freedom of conscience. This is exactly why this website was created: to document what happens when doctors stand up for their patients’ wellbeing, and the state punishes them for it.

1,521 investigations under § 278 StGB since 2020, and these are the figures from only five of the sixteen federal states, together around 30 % of the population. On the true scale, the Federal Government remains silent.

To the official figures, and why the Federal Minister of Health’s rebuttal is factually wrong →

Latest Cases

Christine Tinschert Case #0034
Christine Tinschert
General practitioner · practice for Traditional Chinese Medicine and energy medicine · Hamburg, Germany

Accusation: Criminal proceedings over a single mask-exemption certificate from 2020 – search of the practice in 2022, discontinued under Section 153a of the German Code of Criminal Procedur…

Proceedings discontinued under Section 153a StPO against a 3,000 € payment; no conviction.
Dr. med. Dorin Ritzmann Case #0033
Dr. med. Dorin Ritzmann
Gynaecology and obstetrics · Dietikon, Switzerland

Accusation: Supervisory disciplinary action by the Zürich Cantonal Health Office over vaccine- and Corona-critical content on the practice website — with a threat of withdrawal of the medic…

Appeal lodged in March 2024 rejected by the Health Directorate; contested texts remain removed.
Prof. Dr. med. Sucharit Bhakdi Case #0032
Prof. Dr. med. Sucharit Bhakdi
Medical microbiology · Martensrade, Germany

Accusation: Proceedings on suspicion of incitement to hatred following an informational video on the mRNA vaccine — acquittal in first instance; appeal proceedings pending at the Kiel Regio…

Acquittal in first instance in Plön; appeal lodged by the Senior Public Prosecutor's Office, appeal proceedings pending at the Kiel Regional Court.
Dr. med. Björn Riggenbach Case #0031
Dr. med. Björn Riggenbach
General medicine · Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Accusation: A three-year ban from practising, a house search and fines — over mask-exemption certificates issued after personal examination, speeches at demonstrations and educational videos.

Three-year ban from practising in Neuchâtel and Vaud since August 2023; disciplinary proceedings still open

Our Mission

Transparency

We make visible what happens in the dark. Every case is researched, documented and made publicly accessible.

Protection

Public documentation protects. Those affected are less vulnerable when their cases are observed internationally.

Justice

We demand the preservation of medical freedom of conscience as a fundamental human right: politically, legally, publicly.

Do You Know a Case?

Help us complete the documentation. Every case counts. Every voice makes a difference.

Report a Case

We are only at the beginning

This platform systematically documents the persecution of physicians, of habilitated medical scientists and of scientists with medical expertise (toxicology, pharmacology, virology and others) who acted in good conscience. The cases published here are only the beginning; in Germany alone, our research indicates that there are several thousand affected, with further countries to follow.

In the months and years ahead we will continuously add, research and publish further cases. Each new entry takes time: research, making contact, reviewing documents, editing and translation.

This is not a sprint but a marathon.