Overview
- David Bendels was cleared by the Landgericht Bamberg of defaming former interior minister Nancy Faeser over a post shared on X.
- The ruling overturns an Amtsgericht verdict from April 2024 that had imposed a seven-month suspended sentence with a €1,500 payment and a written apology.
- The presiding judge found the post, viewed in its overall context, to be an expression of opinion rather than a defamatory factual claim, and the prosecutor’s representative also urged acquittal.
- The post showed a doctored image of Faeser holding a sign reading “Ich hasse die Meinungsfreiheit!” alongside the caption “Faeser hasst Meinungsfreiheit!”, whereas the original photo displayed “We remember.”
- The decision is not yet final, and a further appeal remains possible, leaving the boundaries of §188 StGB as applied to online satire potentially unresolved at higher levels.