A spokeswoman for the German Public Prosecutor in Hildesheim announced today, Monday, the refusal to investigate a German politician who described Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an inappropriate way.
The spokeswoman said that the prosecution does not see what the politician Wolfgang Kopecky of the pro-business Free Democratic Party said as a preliminary suspicion of committing a crime.
Months ago, Kubicki described Erdogan as a "little rat in the sewer" while commenting on the Turkish president's immigration policy.
The spokeswoman indicated that the incident is not related, in the eyes of the prosecution, to "an official insult, because the statement was not issued without context, but rather it has an objective reference, and although it involves a great exaggeration, it is understood by external parties that are objective."
The prosecution also considered that the statement "is protected by the right to free expression of opinion, especially since the limits of permissible criticism in the case of politicians are much wider than in the case of ordinary individuals."
Shortly after the incident, lawyer Mustafa Kaplan told the German news agency that he had filed a criminal complaint, on behalf of Erdogan, with the Public Prosecutor's Office in Hildesheim, on charges of insult and defamation.
Ankara has already summoned the German ambassador over Kubicki's statement.
