Prime Minister of Thuringia Bodo Ramelow (Left) has, according to you, in your own words “bit” for the investigation against the artists ‘ group “center for political beauty” (ZPS). Ramelow wrote on Twitter: “All civil proceedings against the ZPS were unsuccessful and now the criminal law as a criminal organisation? Strange!” He stressed, however, that “A rule of law but just to give precisely no political instructions.”
On Wednesday it became known that the Prosecutor’s office Gera determined already for 16 months against the artist. Due to the suspicion of “forming a criminal Association”. Therefore, a method according to Paragraph 129 of the criminal code had been initiated against the ZPS-founder Philipp Ruch. The starting point of the actions of the artist against the Thuringian AfD-Chef Björn Höcke in whose place of residence born in Hagen in the Eichsfeld.
The opinion Ramelows was preceded by fierce criticism of several Left politicians in the investigation, which was to become known by the government answer to a parliamentary question of the Thuringian Left-members of Parliament Steffen Dittes. Also party leader Katja Kipping involved. She called the Gera investigator Martin Zschächner on Twitter a “Prosecutor, do it Right”. She reported that Zschächner have set up an investigation against a AfD-politician, the “want to have a spit-roast” roast and insulted, but now he does not think that the ZPS for a criminal organization: “any more questions?”
The activists of the ZPS had built in 2017, a replica of the Holocaust memorial in born in Hagen, in the immediate vicinity of the Wohnhaues of Höcke. This was in response to the Dresden fire speech Höckes from January 2017, in the this referred to the Holocaust memorial in Berlin as a “monument of shame” and a “reminder of a political 180-degree turn was called for. The conspiratorial established field of Stelae born in Hagen was opened in November 2017.
The artist group not only set up the replica of the memorial, but also called a knee Höckes before this. They also announced, in born Hagen is a “long-term monitoring of right-wing radicalism”. And called on the Internet to support: “Watch the most famous arsonist in Germany.”
Prime Minister of Thuringia Bodo Ramelow (Left).Photo: imago/VIADATA
The public Prosecutor’s office Gera reasons for its investigation, with with this by the ZPS self-announced observation Höckes. The group had announced “in an organised way, eavesdropping and spying measures against the Deputy Höcke” thus even a Crime accused, argued Prosecutor Zschächner on Wednesday.
“Just fun and games?”, the state’s attorney
The artist group had later denied to have Höcke in fact, spied on and wanted to understand the threat to you only as a Satire. “Everything is just fun and games?”, Zschächner asked on Wednesday to this statement. “You have to look at.” So far, the investigation has not been completed.
Meanwhile, runs a fierce debate around the local investigator and his authority. In particular, Zschächner was not only criticised from the Left-Head of Kipping. The Thuringian Left-hand member of the state Parliament, Catherine king-Preuss, published on a Twitter Thread with the summary that Zschächner stands out since the for several years, “in particular, with investigations against left structures”. He will, if it go against this, “Hyper-active”. Against Nazis, there is in comparison little. “I wrote under point, in the meantime, a political Motivation in the investigation of the Lord Zschächner”, king-Preuss.
The Left-hand member of the German Bundestag Niema Movassat called the Gera investigations “absurd” and “a scandal”. He said: “The public Prosecutor’s office Gera to hand the camp of the AfD-far-right Höcke, who claimed that the center for Political beauty is a criminal Association. An indictment for the Prosecutor’s office.” The Deputy Left-Boss Martina Renner said the public Prosecutor’s office Gera “authoritarian fantasies of Höcke in the act”. The method limit to abuse of power and perversion of justice. “Art and anti-fascism are not a criminal.”
The Regensburg criminal law Professor Henning Ernst Müller asked on Twitter: What is raised when a criminal investigation even the appearance that it was politically motivated? Ramelow did not commit itself publicly, whether he shares this concern. He replied Müller, Minister of justice, Dieter Lauinger was “the check”, then the process could be assessed: “the facts instead of conjecture.”
Minister of justice, Lauinger criticised the duration of the investigation
The ZPS calls for the immediate dismissal of Martin Zschächner, “a Prosecutor of the AfD”. Zschächner was on Thursday for comment on the allegations against him cannot be reached.
The Ministry of justice in Erfurt had not commented on the investigation. On Thursday evening, Lauinger spoke up. An Intervention in Gera he rejects. “We as a government want to strengthen the independence of the judiciary,” he said to the daily mirror. Intervention will only be used in exceptional cases – if a “blatantly illegal” action of a public authority is observed.
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Criminal Association? Prosecutor’s office against “the centre for political beauty”
Matthias Meisner
The Lauinger don’t see that in the present case. He takes the investigators largely in protection. “The initiation of the investigation was based on private behavior, of the center for political beauty, and was not politically motivated,” explains the Minister of justice. “To the contrary the allegations are nonsense.” Declaration required, see Lauinger nevertheless, in the case of the public Prosecutor’s office: “you Can not bring out such a determination method faster than in 16 months?”
