Katrin Göring-Eckardt: Facebook user sentenced after insulting her

A Facebook user had insulted Katrin Göring-Eckardt, then leader of the Green Party, via the platform after spreading a false quote from her. Now he has been sentenced to a suspended sentence.

False quote spread via Facebook

The case under trial had begun with the Facebook user spreading a false quote attributed to the Green politician via the social network. The false quote referred to sexual assaults during a folk festival that took place in Baden-Württemberg in 2017 and was intended to testify to a positive attitude of the politician towards delinquent refugees: “The sexual assaults in Schorndorf can by no means be excused, but they show a cry for help from refugees because they are not respected enough by German women in their feelings.” In the social media, this false quote – as well as numerous others – is circulating in heaps. So far, corrections have been rare.

In the specific case, several other users of the service pointed out to the defendant that the quoted statement did not come from Göring-Eckardt. However, the defendant did not delete his post as a result. Rather, he took it as an opportunity to express his dislike for Göring-Eckardt, which ultimately culminated in a sexually connoted insult against the politician.

Trial in Rhineland-Palatinate

The case was tried at the Bernkastel-Kues district court. Some of the Facebook users who had pointed out to the defendant that he was falsely attributing the quote to Göring-Eckardt were called as witnesses and testified in court. The defendant himself stated for the record that he himself had been deceived and had not recognized that the quote did not actually come from Göring-Eckardt. Furthermore, he stated that his statement “Dear Kathrin, make the beginning & legs wide … Such a statement is disgusting”, which he furthermore provided with, among other things, the emoji of a blood-smeared knife, had not been sexually intended.

However, the district court did not follow the 58-year-old and sentenced him for defamation against persons of political life in fact unit with an insult to a prison sentence of seven months, which was suspended due to a lack of previous convictions.

More trials soon?

It is to be expected that the courts will soon have to hear similar cases much more frequently, as the revised Network Enforcement Act obliges social media operators not only to delete content that may be relevant under criminal law, but also to report it to the BKA along with the personal data of the user in question.