Police affair: Journalist criticizes the public prosecutor

Created: 11/21/2022, 11:50 am

State Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (l) and Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann at a state press conference in the state parliament.

© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa

In the so-called police affair, the journalist who was being investigated for a publication severely criticized the public prosecutor's office.

With their investigations, the prosecutors had prevented him from continuing to report on the affair and the allegations against the police inspector, the reporter said on Monday before the investigative committee in the state parliament.

Stuttgart - The thought does not seem far away that the investigations were only carried out to calm a critical journalist.

The authority had investigated the journalist on suspicion of prohibited communications about court hearings.

The journalist spoke of a "press-hostile legal form".

The opposition used this to persuade Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) to resign.

Parliament has sometimes encouraged freedom of the press to be trampled on.

The case against the journalist has now been dropped.

The committee deals with sexual harassment in state authorities, promotion practices in the police force and the passing on of a letter from a lawyer by Strobl.

According to investigations, a police inspector who has since been suspended is said to have sexually harassed a police officer in Stuttgart almost a year ago.

The public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart recently brought charges of sexual assault.

Strobl had passed on a letter from the inspector's lawyer to a journalist - and was therefore also under pressure.

However, the investigations against Strobl will be discontinued against payment of a fine of 15,000 euros.

dpa