German comedian will not be prosecuted for insulting Erdogan

[Thanas]

Guardian

A German standup comedian who provoked a major diplomatic row between Berlin and Ankara over a poem insulting the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been told he will not face prosecution.

German prosecutors said on Tuesday that they had dropped their investigation into Jan Böhmermann because of insufficient evidence he had committed a crime.

Böhmermann created a furore at the end of March when he read a poem on state TV in which he lampooned the Turkish leader, arguing that he was doing so to test the boundaries of satire. The Turkish government had previously demanded the removal of a satirical song from another German comedy show.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, was widely criticised for appearing to give in to Ankara’s demands for Böhmermann to be prosecuted under an obscure paragraph of the German legal code forbidding offensive remarks against organs or representatives of foreign states. Such insults are theoretically punishable by up to three years in prison, and up to five years if the insults are considered slanderous.

Böhmermann said at the time that he felt Merkel had “filleted me [and] served me up for tea” to Erdoğan, warning that she risked damaging freedom of speech in Germany.

But on Tuesday, prosecutors in Mainz said “criminal actions could not be proven with the necessary certainty” and that the charges would be dropped. They said the poem was protected by so-called Kunstfreiheit, or artistic freedom.

However, legal proceedings are still not over for Böhmermann. On 2 November, a Hamburg court will decide whether a private prosecution that Erdoğan himself has brought against the comic can go ahead.

Erdoğan’s lawyer, Michael-Hubertus von Sprenger, said his aim was to enforce a complete ban of the poem, which includes references to child pornography, bestiality, repressing minorities, kicking Kurds and slapping Christians.

Finally this farce is over. I expect Erdogan to throw another tantrum.

[K. A. Pital]

Good that this is over with. All that pandering to Erdo-gun, who was one of the architects of the IS crisis, was painful to watch.

[Rogue 9]

This was actually a question?

[Edi]

This was actually a question?

Given the way certain laws were, yes.

[Crazedwraith]

Not quite over. What are the chances this private prosecution by Erodogan will rule in his favour?

[The Romulan Republic]

Glad to see that Germany has decided that they're still a free country.

Fuck Erdogan. Kick him out of NATO.

[Thanas]

Not quite over. What are the chances this private prosecution by Erodogan will rule in his favour?

If you mean in favour of Erdogan and his crusade against critics, probably quite low, but better than nonexistent.

[wautd]

But you shouldn't call people a goat fucker when they aren't