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Sucharit Bhakdi at a demo against the corona rules: Close to the "lateral thinkers".
Photo: Isabelle Ouvrard / SEPA.Media / IMAGO
The Attorney General of Schleswig-Holstein has accused the controversial microbiologist and author Sucharit Bhakdi of incitement to hatred.
According to a statement, she accuses the accused of inciting hatred against Jews living in Germany in an interview in April 2021 in connection with critical statements about Israel's vaccination policy with generalizing statements and of having maliciously disparaged them as a religious group.
The prosecution also alleges that Bhakdi gave a speech at a campaign event on September 24, 2021 in Kiel, in which he spoke of the approval of Covid-19 vaccines in connection with an "end goal".
He spoke of a second Holocaust, which is said to have played down the fate of Jews under Nazi rule.
Proximity to »lateral thinkers«
Bhakdi was a candidate for the »lateral thinker« party »Die Basis« in the 2021 federal election.
The public prosecutor's office in Kiel initially stopped the preliminary investigation against Bhakdi.
The Attorney General's Office later took it up again.
The procedure is to be negotiated at the district court in Plön.
Bhakdi was Professor of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene in Mainz.
Experts - such as his former institute at the University of Mainz - classified several of his theses on the corona pandemic as misleading or wrong.
His book "Corona Fehlalarm?" was one of the best-selling non-fiction books of 2020.
Tagesschau.de and t-online.de report that the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Science is currently examining whether to prohibit Bhakdi from using his professorship.
It is an ongoing administrative procedure that is at the hearing stage.
ptz/dpa
