Magdeburg (dpa/sa) – Saxony-Anhalt’s Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang has condemned the non-acceptance of criminal charges for hate messages online in connection with a report by TV satirist Jan Böhmermann. “This is an absolutely unacceptable process, an absolute no-go,” said the CDU politician on Tuesday in Magdeburg. “It is the core task of every police officer to record criminal charges and prosecute criminal offenses.” The Magdeburg Police Inspectorate had quite rightly initiated proceedings on May 23 on suspicion of frustrating criminal prosecution.
As the satirist Jan Böhmermann reported last week in “ZDF Magazin Royale”, 16 people had submitted the same seven hate comments from the Internet to police stations in all federal states in August 2021. According to the Magdeburg Police Inspectorate on Saturday, “a criminal complaint was not received at the time”. The police officer at the Magdeburg police station is being investigated internally on suspicion of thwarting criminal prosecution.
In the case of official offenses as well as the showing of unconstitutional signs, mere knowledge is enough to be obliged to start investigations, according to Zieschang. “Citizens must be able to trust that the police are investigating in these cases.”
Zieschang said that not only was there a verbal complaint, but, as in all other federal states, a written complaint was also made about the same seven cases of hate crime. This report was received at the Jerichower Land police station. “And of course this ad was processed there. And investigations were also started,” said the interior minister. The results were also presented to the public prosecutor. “The public prosecutor’s office in Stendal then stopped the investigation into all seven facts in January of this year.” It should now be worked up internally by the police as to what the investigation looked like.
