A man called for the extermination of the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany), and it wasn’t a criminal offense, because it is covered by freedom of speech. However, to say, for example, “Mass Islamic immigration is destroying Germany” is definitely not covered by freedom of speech, and most likely will gain the person who utters it a conviction, and possibly even a jail sentence. So go figure.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Junge Freiheit:

Man calls for the AfD to be eradicated — court proceedings discontinued

A man in Augsburg is calling for AfD members to be exterminated. In court, his defense lawyer argues about freedom of expression. The public prosecutor’s office and the judge object, but the proceedings are nevertheless discontinued.

Augsburg

The Augsburg district court has conditionally closed proceedings against a man who had called for the eradication of the AfD. The defendant had to pay €3,000 to a charitable organization and escaped conviction, the dpa news agency reported.

Last year the 33-year-old commented on a post by the AfD Saxony on the short message service which featured a machine gun and the words “defend equality.”

Defense attorney argues with freedom of expression

The public prosecutor saw this as a call to kill AfD members and accused the man of rewarding and endorsing crimes. The district court agreed with this assessment, and initially issued a fine with a penalty order. Since the defendant did not want to accept this, a court hearing took place.

There his defense attorney argued that the comment was covered by freedom of expression. Their client did not want to incite an act of violence. Since both the public prosecutor and the judge saw the posted picture of a firearm as a contradiction of this view, those involved in the trial agreed to discontinue the proceedings under certain conditions. The man now has to pay the original fine of €3,000 not to the state, but to a charitable organization. In this way he avoids conviction.

Afterword from the translator:

And just yesterday Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke was sentenced by the Halle district court to a fine of 100 daily rates of €130 each. Everything over 90 days will give you a criminal record and automatically bans you from Public Office afterwards. Very convenient, isn’t it? The judges saw it as proven that Höcke used the banned SA slogan “Everything for Germany” in a speech in May 2021. And I’m pretty sure that until that moment NOBODY would have thought this phrase was a criminal act. It must have taken them quite some digging to find that phrase in the National Socialist files. But as we can clearly see here, it depends on your political view whether you’re being prosecuted for “hate speech” or “sedition”. Just like it was under the Nazi regime and later under the DDR regime. And like this lovely young woman, Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, who is now “A Hardened Criminal From the AfD”.