The Leipzig district court has postponed the start of the defamation trial against musician Gil Ofarim, which was planned for next week, by at least six months. The reason for this is, among other things, a comprehensive claim for damages made at short notice by the co-plaintiff and pending decisions on appeals filed by the defense, as the court announced on Monday.
In addition, the time should be used to decide whether to bring charges against the 40-year-old. This includes false affidavits, fraud and attempted fraud. In addition, the court suggested that an attempt should be made to reach a perpetrator-victim mediation and thus an out-of-court settlement.
Because the responsible criminal court is currently busy with detention cases, a rescheduling can be expected in six months at the earliest, it said.
Ofarim is to answer on suspicion of false suspicion and defamation. The musician, son of the well-known Israeli singer Abi Ofarim (1937-2018), had accused a Leipzig hotel employee of making anti-Semitic statements last year.
According to the public prosecutor’s office in Leipzig, the incident did not happen that way. The investigations against the employee were discontinued. At the end of March, the Leipzig public prosecutor’s office brought charges against the musician.
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