German far-right leader in legal soup over anti-Muslim tweet

BERLIN: German police have filed a complaint against a prominent member of Germany’s far-right AfD party over a tweet on New Year’s Eve, which they say violated antiincitement laws.

Beatrix von Storch, deputy leader of the party’s parliamentary faction, had criticized Cologne police for sending out information in Arabic on Twitter.

“What the hell is going on with this country? Why is an official police site ... tweeting in Arabic?” she wrote. “Did you mean to placate the barbaric, Muslim, gang-raping hordes of men?”

Von Storch’s tweet appeared to reference chaotic 2015 New Year’s Eve celebrations in Cologne, which were marred by mass sex assaults on women by men of mostly North African origin.

Cologne police told AFP their complaint alleges that the tweet flouted laws against incitement to hate.

Von Storch’s account was blocked by Twitter for 12 hours following her post, and the tweet has since been removed.

She posted the same comment on Facebook, which then also took it down, citing “incitement to hate (paragraph 130 of the German penal code).”

Twitter and Facebook’s tough stance came as an anti-online hate speech law came into effect on Jan. 1 in Germany.

Social media companies that fail to remove illegal inflammatory comments could face up to €50 million ($60 million) in fines.

A Cologne police spokesman said it was long-standing practice to send out information in several languages during large gatherings and events.

“We simply want people to be able to understand us,” said the spokesman.

The AfD seized 92 parliamentary seats in September elections — the strongest showing for a far-right party in the post-war era — as it capitalized on discontent over the more than 1 million asylum seekers who arrived in Germany since 2015.