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Millions of AfD flyers end up in the trash
Photo:
Andreas Friedrichs / imago images/A.
Friedrichs
A search warrant, with which several officers of the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Berlin carried out a raid there in the morning, caused astonishment and confusion in style and principle at the »Centre for Political Beauty« (ZPS). The background to this was an action in which the satirical artist collective posed as the “Flyerservice Hahn” to the AfD before the last federal election – and according to their own statements, they had not delivered around five million political direct mail, but had sent it to the shredder logistically.
The raid took place between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the private apartments of two members of the ZPS, and numerous data carriers were confiscated.
Although Stefan Pelzer is the center's escalation officer, he is not happy about the measure because "the state has acted against artistic freedom," as he told SPIEGEL.
Despite various announcements, "the state is not escalating its fight against the right here," but rather searches "the apartments of artists early in the morning.
It is completely incomprehensible to us how such an assessment was made.«
According to the decision, the search is based on paragraph 269, which assumes and prosecutes a "deception in legal transactions" where "evidence-relevant data" is stored or changed in such a way that "when they were perceived, a fake or falsified document would exist". .
That is exactly what the ZPS did when it presented itself to several AfD associations as “Flyerservice Hahn”.
The center was aware of this fact, but, according to Pelzer, sees itself "at the lowest level of vulnerability in document offences".
The police are expressly not investigating fraud or the forgery of documents - and only on the basis of a paragraph whose application has so far "in almost all cases been about fraud with the intention of appropriation".
According to Pelzer, “no one has ever been convicted or even prosecuted in connection with an art project” on this legal basis.
A spokeswoman for the Berlin Attorney General disagrees.
Accordingly, the suspicion of forgery of documents had been investigated.
In the e-mail traffic, the ZPS is said to have "created the false impression of the existence of a company that never existed - with the aim of stealing the flyers," the spokeswoman told SPIEGEL.
»misappropriation«
ZPS representative Pelzer sees this as "misappropriation of a phishing paragraph," which is being bent over "in order to justify a house search.
We resolutely reject that.« Nevertheless, the ZPS must have been aware that there would be legal consequences.
"We had prepared for civil disputes with the AfD about their advertising material," said Pelzer.
Due to such minor allegations, it was never assumed that there was any criminal relevance: »We are not computer fraudsters, we have not made any profit.
For us, the focus is on the art project.«
According to the Attorney General's Office, the spokeswoman said, "in principle, such means are possible for every paragraph of the Criminal Code that the Code of Criminal Procedure allows".
It is a weighing of fundamental rights, and “an initial suspicion is enough for us to carry out a search”.
Searches are not uncommon for "classic fraudulent activities on the Internet that are associated with this paragraph," said the spokeswoman.
All the more strange, since "there is no suspicion of fraud".
Subterfuge or intimidation?
Stefan Pelzer from the ZPS points out that »we are known for working together with the authorities.
The LKA has our private telephone numbers, knows our lawyers, and there are communication channels.« In his opinion, a milder measure could have been chosen and a summons issued.
But a raid »with the foreseeable result that there was not enough to bring charges leads to the assumption that the police used this pretext to go into our structures.
Maybe also to intimidate us.«
The responsible investigating judge, Pelzer suspects, apparently did not know what was being presented to him: "Or he was drunk."