Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) – The process of allegedly abusing the title of the former managing director of the Frankfurt Workers’ Welfare Association (Awo), Jürgen Richter, is dragging on and should not end before mid-January. On Wednesday, before the Criminal Appeal Chamber of the Frankfurt Regional Court, the application was made again to hear a relative of the judge on the witness stand. This could prove that there was nothing to the accusation made by a Wiesbaden journalist.
In February 2020, the journalist stated in an advertisement that the now 66-year-old judge claimed to have earned his doctorate in America for $50. Under these conditions, no doctoral title may be used in Germany.
The relative had already twice refused to testify because of his connection to the accused – according to the judge’s defense lawyers, he could now be ready to testify. The court now wants to ask the witness again on December 19 to take the stand. A possible verdict is scheduled for January 11th.
Richter was sentenced in May of this year by the Frankfurt district court to a fine of 8,000 euros (100 daily rates) for misuse of titles. While the court and the public prosecutor’s office assumed that Richter had wrongly used the academic title in his personal documents and also in the management contract with Awo, the defense spoke of an “original idea by journalists” with which their client and his family were “scandalized”. should.
