German farright lawmaker accused of incitement over antiMuslim tweet

BERLIN: German police have asked prosecutors to investigate a farright lawmaker for possible incitement to hatred after she criticised a police force for tweeting in Arabic “to appease the barbaric, Muslim, rapist hoards of men”.

Police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) posted a New Year’s Eve greeting in Arabic as well as German, English and French. Cologne, a city where groups of mainly Arab immigrants were accused of sexual assaults at New Year’s Eve celebrations two years ago, is located in the state.

“What the hell is wrong with this country? Why is the official page of police in NRW tweeting in Arabic,” Beatrix von Storch, a member of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), wrote in a Dec. 31 tweet that was later deleted by Twitter after receiving complaints from members of the public.

“Are they seeking to appease the barbaric, Muslim, rapist hoards of men?” she added.

Twitter suspended her account for some 12 hours after she posted the message, saying it breached the micro-blogging website’s rules that bar users from posting hateful messages.

Social media platforms face hefty fines in Germany if they fail to remove hateful postings swiftly, and companies like Facebook and Twitter have hired extra staff to monitor such messages. The NRW police deployed large numbers of officers to secure New Year’s street parties in large cities this year and said celebrations were largely peaceful. Prosecutors in NRW must first decide whether they should deal with the police complaint against von Storch or transfer the case to Berlin.