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Pastor Olaf Latzel: Accused of sedition
Photo: Sina Schuldt / dpa
The trial against a Protestant pastor has started in Bremen who had made derogatory comments about homosexuals.
Olaf Latzel has to answer to the local court on charges of sedition.
He had incited hatred with his statements, said prosecutor Florian Maß.
At a marriage seminar in 2019, which was also posted as an audio file on YouTube, the clergyman spoke of »gender dirt« and a »gay lobby«, among other things.
Pastor Olaf Latzel's defense lawyer criticized the public prosecutor's office.
He accused her of deliberately using false information to raise the mood against his mandate.
Contrary to a press release from the public prosecutor's office on July 2, Latzel never referred to people as "gender crap" and never generally referred to homosexuals as criminals.
The audio file lasting over an hour and a half was played during the hearing.
There the pastor gives a lecture on the biblical theological interpretation of marriage and speaks about alleged dangers for marriage.
In this context he says that "the whole gender crap is a kind of attack on God's order of creation."
In addition: »These criminals run around everywhere from the CSD (Christoper Street Day), celebrate parties and hang the rainbow flag on the town hall.
These are deliberately anti-Christian things with which marriage is torpedoed. "
Latzel's lawyer said that it was not his client who put the file on the Internet, but a community member.
The marriage seminar was not intended for publication.
On October 19, 2019, Latzel said to the 30 or so married couples present: "Everything will stay here and will not be cut out over the air and not transmitted."
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bbr / dpa
