Via DW:
Joachim Wagner, who has written a book on the topic called "Judges acting outside the law," can see the positive aspect of that tradition, but his research has also yielded many negative examples.
In an interview with DW, Wagner describes one of 16 cases he analyzes in his book. In that case, a man shoots another in the foot. Later, the victim's brother takes revenge and shoots the perpertrator in the leg. Both cases go to court.
According to Wagner, Muslim mediators from Sweden and Germany are consulted, resulting in a watering-down of the original statements in the course of the lawsuit. The shooting in the foot is now seen more as accidental.
Wagner claims the case is a typical example of how statements change and lead to a wrong and unfair ruling. In the end, the German court handed down a sentence of nine months on probation - too lenient in Wagner's opinion. If both the victims and the perpetrators had stuck to their original statements, the sentence would have most likely been harsher.(source)
