The controversial Stuttgart Landtag MEP Wolfgang Gedeon of AfD may be described as a Holocaust denier. This was decided by District Court of Berlin and thus gave President of Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, right. Gedeon as a Holocaust denier is refore covered by protection of freedom of expression, civil court noted.

In a newspaper article, Schuster accused Gedeon of denying genocide of Nazis to Jews. The President of Central Council invoked books written by AfD politician and his freedom of expression. Gedeon felt name of Holocaust deniers as an unjustified accusation and complained. Gedeon denied Holocaust.

The District Court of Berlin now rejected Gedeon lawsuit and justified its decision by saying that Gedeon had questioned "individual aspects of Holocaust" such as number of victims or classification as a human crime in delimitation to war crimes. According to District Court, Holocaust denier is not a defined term. Rar, assessment of wher questioning of individual aspects of destruction of Jews is already a denial of Holocaust or not is dependent on fundamental freedom of expression protected by law. The verdict is not yet final.

Schuster welcomed decision "at a time when aggressive anti-Semitism in Germany is getting more and more footing". Hostilities on Internet, denial or relativization of Jewish murder and physical attacks on Jews are no longer exceptional.

Gedeon accused court of "special treatment" of shoemakers. He wants to wait for written justification and n decide wher he is against verdict in next instance. The anti-Semitism accusations against Gedeon had led to temporary splitting of AfD Landtag faction in Baden-Württemberg in summer of 2016. The 70-year-old has since been a non-attached member, but has not been excluded from AfD.

Date Of Update: 17 January 2018, 12:02