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Brückner is due in court on Thursday morning in Lehrte, Lower Saxony, to face the charge of insulting a prison staff member, a court official told the BBC.

They will do so amid the verdant surroundings of Lower Saxony where the watch towers, fences and buildings have gone.

The scientists used a unique empirical dataset, taking data from 40 plots of mature European beech forests across the state of Lower Saxony in Germany.

Brückner's trial is being heard by judges - not a jury - in Braunschweig, in the north-western state of Lower Saxony, because that was where Brückner was last officially registered.

Two of the charges against him have been brought by prosecutors in Braunschweig, close to Volkswagen's headquarters in the Lower Saxony town of Wolfsburg.