Lawsuit after penalty order for defamation: AfD MP Ralf Stadler is no longer allowed to own a weapon

Created: 05/26/2022, 07:00

By: Stefan Aigner

AfD member of parliament Ralf Stadler (right) and his lawyer Thomas Tauer in the library of the administrative court in Regensburg.

© Stefan Aigner

AfD politician Ralf Stadler is no longer allowed to own a weapon.

This was decided by the administrative court in Regensburg on Tuesday.

Regensburg

"The administrative court is not a substitute for an appeal or revision procedure." After almost 90 minutes of negotiations and only a short consultation, the 4th chamber at the Regensburg administrative court dismisses the complaint of the Lower Bavarian AfD MP Ralf Stadler.

The 57-year-old did not get his gun license back, nor his nine-millimeter pistol.

Complaint before the Regensburg administrative court: AfD man had accepted penalty order for defamation

As reported, the member of the state parliament, known for his blustering manner, lost his gun license after the Munich District Court issued a penalty order in September and sentenced him to a fine of 60 daily rates.

The background was a photo montage with Ilse Aigner, President of the Landtag, which Stadler posted on his Facebook account in July 2019.

It shows the CSU politician releasing balloons with elementary school children.

Stadler provided several of the balloons with the AfD logo and published the photo with the sentence: "The AfD also works in Bavaria".

Aigner filed a criminal complaint.

In September 2020, the Munich district court saw this as the unauthorized use of copyrighted works in conjunction with a violation of the Art Copyright Act in conjunction with defamation against a person in political life and issued the said penalty order, which Stadler also accepted.

Lawsuit for gun ownership: Lawyer speaks of "deal" because of several criminal charges

The crux for Stadler in all of this: If a person is sentenced for more than 60 daily rates, the legislator assumes, regardless of the type of offence, that the reliability of owning a weapon is no longer given.

The so-called "rule assumption" applies, as a result of which the Passau district office confiscated the Tittlinger's gun ownership card and he had to hand in his pistol.

Stadler's lawyer Thomas Tauer claims on Tuesday a "deal" that existed at the time - with the participation of the public prosecutor's offices in Passau and Deggendorf.

Content: Should Stadler accept the penalty order because of his Facebook posting, several proceedings against Stadler, in particular for incitement to hatred, would be discontinued at the same time.

Criminal complaint against Ralf Stadler: Migrants called "parasites".

Among other things, the member of the state parliament Toni Schuberl reported the AfD politician to the Deggendorf public prosecutor's office because of other online postings.

Stadler had described migrants as "parasites", called for birth control for Muslims, described a civil war between the German population and migrants as imminent and advocated arming the German population, it was said at the time.

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The president of the state parliament, Ilse Aigner, announced in a press release shortly after the penalty order was imposed that it “entirely” met her expectations.

"Such malicious photo manipulation is not a bad joke, but an attack on the dignity of Parliament and the integrity of my person.

Anyone who mocks the Bavarian state parliament in the person of the state parliament president must also expect legal consequences.” 

"Deal" because of several criminal charges: win-win situation for everyone involved?

Stadler accepted all of this.

In return, according to attorney Tauer, the investigations against Stadler for incitement to hatred were dropped.

For Stadler, the whole thing was a “pure risk assessment”.

Things like incitement to hatred could be “problematic” because “something could get stuck”, says Tauer.

Seen in this way, the whole thing seems to have been a win-win situation for everyone involved, one might think.

Ralf Stadler on Facebook posting with Ilse Aigner: "Satire"

Today, Stadler and his lawyer doubt that the high-profile conviction for the Facebook post with Ilse Aigner would have stood if the courts had gone through it.

After all, the children's faces were pixelated, he took the posting offline after less than two hours and the whole thing was a joke, satire in the context of the political debate, for which he then apologized in writing, according to Stadler.

Stadler's lawyer also says that the underlying deal did not meet the legal requirements.

Regensburg Administrative Court dismisses suit for gun ownership

But with this line of reasoning, he and his client bite on granite at the administrative court in Regensburg.

According to the Chamber, the available correspondence does not provide any evidence that such an agreement, said “deal”, ever existed.

But even if: Stadler has now accepted the penalty order.

And only if it becomes apparent that a criminal conviction is wrong, i.e. “in absolutely exceptional cases”, can the administrative court refrain from withdrawing the gun license.

But that is not the case here.

The conclusion of the Munich district court is "at least conceivable and plausible," it says at the end - in the dismissal of the lawsuit, which Stadler says it now wants to accept.

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