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Old March 26th, 2008 #1
Alex Linder
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Join Date: Nov 2003
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Default Udo Voigt (Germany)

Udo Voigt, leader of German far-right party, charged with defamation

The Associated Press
March 25, 2008

BERLIN: The head of the main German far-right party was charged Tuesday with incitement and defamation for allegedly publishing a pamphlet before the 2006 soccer World Cup that prosecutors said called into question whether nonwhite players should be on the national team.

A prosecutor, Simone Herbeth, said in a statement that Udo Voigt, head of the National Democratic Party, had been charged with incitement and defamation over the pamphlets. The party spokesman, Klaus Beier, and a prominent member, Frank Schwerdt, have also been charged, Herbeth said.

"The indictment charges that the accused are responsible for publishing pamphlets ahead of the 2006 soccer World Cup which, through a picture of the No. 25" - a number that was worn by a black player at the time - "called into question whether this player, as well as other nonwhite-skinned players, were worthy of representing Germany as national players," Herbeth said in a statement.

The pamphlets showed the traditional white German jersey with the No. 25, worn at the time by the defender Patrick Owomoyela. They read: "White, not just a jersey color! For a real NATIONAL team!"

Owomoyela, who has a German mother and a Nigerian father, plays for Werder Bremen but is no longer a member of the German national squad.

The National Democratic Party called the charges "absurd" and "political" in a statement issued on its Web site.

"The German justice authorities are ever more zealous when it comes to pursuing and persecuting the national opposition," the statement read.

Beier said in an interview by telephone that the use of No. 25 was "pure chance" and insisted that the quality of the printing was unclear, meaning that the number could be interpreted as a 26 or even a 23. "Everyone can see their own favorite number in it," Beier said.

Backed by the German soccer federation, Owomoyela filed suit against the party in 2006 over the pamphlets, some 70,000 of which were confiscated by the authorities during a search at the party's national headquarters.

Prosecutors charge that the party then printed another series of pamphlets showing 10 white and one black player in German national jerseys under the question, "German National Team 2010?"

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/...ope/berlin.php
 
 

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