Icon: enlarge
Lutz Bachmann: In a YouTube video message he spoke of "an absolute scandalous verdict"
Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa
Lutz Bachmann is one of the leading figures in the anti-Islam and xenophobic Pegida movement - and has already been convicted of various offenses.
Now he had to answer again in court.
The Dresden District Court has sentenced Bachmann to a fine of 4200 euros for sedition and insult.
He doesn't want to accept that.
A little later, in a YouTube video message, the 47-year-old spoke of "an absolute scandalous judgment" and "conviction" and announced his appeal.
Judge Arndt Fiedler, however, saw it as proven that Bachmann insulted a journalist on social media in August 2019 and in June 2020 described Muslims as “murderer Muslims” and “rapist Muslims”.
The public prosecutor's office had pleaded for seven months imprisonment.
The verdict is not yet legally binding.
Bachmann, who has lived on the Canary Island of Tenerife since 2016 and claimed to be a “freelance journalist” as a profession, denied the incitement to hatred and said that he had differentiated sufficiently.
What matters is how such formulations are received, the judge replied.
Bachmann's criminal record, which was read out in court, currently comprises 20 entries, including sedition, burglary and drug trafficking.
Icon: The mirror
asc / dpa
