Police are now investigating against Abbas: Baerbock's ministry doubts the consequences - expert disagrees

Created: 2022-08-19 2:59 p.m

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (l) during the press conference in Berlin.

© Wolfgang Kumm/dpa

In the Chancellery, Mahmoud Abbas caused shudders on Tuesday with a comparison to the Holocaust.

Now there is an aftermath: the police are investigating.

Berlin – The Holocaust statements by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas when he appeared together with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) have legal consequences: the Berlin police have started investigations into suspected hate speech, as a spokeswoman confirmed on Friday.

However, there are already doubts in the federal government as to whether consequences are even conceivable.

Abbas' Holocaust statements at Scholz: LKA commissariat processes criminal complaint

According to the police, a specialist commissioner of the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) is handling the process.

It should be "sent promptly to the Berlin public prosecutor's office for information and further decision".

A criminal complaint had previously been filed against Abbas with the state security police for "relativizing the Shoa".

The background: Abbas told journalists on Tuesday after meeting Scholz in the Chancellery that Israel had committed "50 massacres, 50 holocausts" on Palestinians since 1947.

The relativization of the Holocaust caused great outrage.

Scholz himself only condemned the statement afterwards.

Scholz visit with consequences for Abbas?

Baerbock's ministry doubts - experts see it differently

According to a spokesman, the Foreign Office of Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) assumes that Abbas enjoys immunity from prosecution.

It was an "official visit in his capacity as a representative of the Palestinian Authority".

This immunity applies "even if Germany does not currently recognize a state of Palestine as a state," said the spokesman.

Ultimately, however, it is up to the competent judicial authorities to clarify the question of immunity.

Germany has not yet recognized Palestine as a state, but maintains diplomatic relations with the Palestinian territories.

The Augsburg criminal law professor Michael Kubiciel assessed

the situation a little differently when asked by

"The fact that Mr. Abbas was in Berlin at the invitation of the Federal Republic of Germany cannot be decisive, since many people accept an invitation from state authorities without enjoying immunity," he judged.

Scholz under pressure: Traffic light politician demands political consequences for Abbas

A spokesman for Abbas, meanwhile, spoke of a "campaign" against the Palestinian President and Palestinian interests in general in connection with the allegations.

Abbas pointed to crimes committed by Israel in the Palestinian Territories, but also made it clear that the Holocaust was "the most heinous crime in modern human history".

The Palestinian also emphasized in another statement on Wednesday that he did not want to question the uniqueness of the Holocaust in Berlin.

also read

"Coward!": Bolsonaro becomes violent towards YouTubers

Freelance work: Merkur.de and tz.de are looking for reinforcements throughout Germany

The scandal is also extremely unpleasant for Scholz.

A sharp distancing from the Chancellor happened only hours after the statement.

Demands for political consequences are now also coming from their own coalition – at least for Abbas: “Abbas should no longer be received in Germany as long as he does not distance himself from his anti-Semitic statements,” said the FDP member of the Bundestag Frank Müller-Rosentritt the

.

Whether he has done this sufficiently is in the eye of the beholder for the time being.

For the SPD head of government, it is not the only blunder that has been the subject of heated debate: on the occasion of a questioning of Scholz in front of the Cum-Ex investigative committee in Hamburg, critics also doubt the chancellor's "memory gaps".

(

)