Overview

• Amtsgericht Haßfurt found the 64-year-old guilty of spreading Nazi-referencing images and sentenced him to 55 daily fines of €15 each, totaling €825
• Prosecutors pointed to posts featuring Adolf Hitler shaking hands with a clergyman and a doctored Spiegel cover showing Green politician Katharina Schulze giving the Hitler salute
• Two additional charges were dismissed when the court ruled those posts qualified as satire and were protected under freedom of expression
• Investigations into the initial August 2024 insult against former Economics Minister Robert Habeck were provisionally discontinued as the court deemed them less severe
• The defense challenged the authorship of the content as critically used historical imagery and filed a bias motion against the judge, which the court rejected