According to WELT information, the district court in Mettmann issued a penalty order against AfD member of the Bundestag Martin Renner. As the court confirmed on request, the penalty order includes a fine of 30 daily rates of 300 euros each, i.e. a total of 9000 euros. It’s an allegation of insult.
“Mr. Renner is accused of showing the middle finger to a saleswoman and the owner of the shop in a shop in Haan on February 5, 2021,” said Markus Zweigle, judge at the Mettmann District Court. Renner is said to have been asked to wear a medical mask in the tobacco shop because he was only wearing a fabric mask. At that time, it was compulsory to wear medical masks in shops.
The penal order had been requested by the Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office. The Bundestag lifted Martin Renner’s immunity in November and thus approved criminal proceedings against the MP. Members of the Bundestag may only be investigated for suspected criminal offenses if Parliament agrees. The immunity is limited to the duration of membership in the Bundestag and is intended to ensure that Parliament can work and function properly.
Renner is media policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group and was one of the 15 founding initiators and part of the founding board of the AfD in 2013. At that time, Renner was also responsible for developing the party name and logo.
Cases of minor crime can be punished with a penalty order. A decision will be made on the basis of the file; sufficient suspicion is sufficient. The criminal norm of insult punishes defamatory actions, such as derogatory statements, gestures or assaults.
The FDP now wants to quickly abolish the last corona measures. There is no longer any legal basis for it. Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach considers an immediate end to the rules to be careless – as do the majority of Germans.
Source: WELT/ Viktoria Schulte
The penalty order against Renner is not yet final. The 68-year-old has the opportunity to appeal. The court would then have to schedule a main hearing to clarify the allegation.
Renner did not respond to a short-term WELT request on Thursday. After the preliminary investigation had been started by the Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office, he declared that the accusation was not correct. Rather, he himself was insulted. At the time, he described the process to the German Press Agency as “politically motivated”.
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