Dhe Thuringian state parliament once again lifted the immunity of AfD parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke on Friday. The Parliament’s Judiciary Committee thus granted an application by the Mühlhausen public prosecutor’s office, which is investigating Höcke on charges of incitement to hatred. Apart from the three AfD deputies, all parliamentarians present agreed to the repeated lifting of Höcke’s immunity.
It is about a contribution by Höcke in the Telegram network, in which, with reference to the criminal offense of a migrant, he insinuates that immigrants suffer from a “widespread widespread disease” that makes them “scream Allahu Akbar”. Höcke himself confirmed on platform X (formerly Twitter) that his immunity had been lifted “for the 7th time” and spoke of a “judicial cudgel against dissidents”.
According to information from committee circles, a letter from the public prosecutor’s office in Mühlhausen to the members of the judiciary committee states that Höcke’s conviction for incitement to hatred is likely. A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Mühlhausen confirmed after the decision of the judiciary committee that the authority wanted to bring charges against Höcke because of the telegram post. This should happen promptly. The charges should be raised at the Mühlhausen district court, “because of the special importance of the matter,” said the spokesman.
Torsten Czuppon is also being investigated
In May 2023, the Halle public prosecutor had already brought charges against Höcke. She accuses him of publicly using the license plates of a former National Socialist organization. In a public speech in front of around 250 listeners in Merseburg in 2021, Höcke used the SA slogan “Everything for Germany!”, the prosecutors said at the time. In a plea to this allegation, Höcke “denied the criminal relevance of his statement”.
At the same time, according to dpa information from committee circles, the judiciary committee of the Thuringian state parliament also lifted the immunity of another AfD member of parliament: the Erfurt public prosecutor’s office had applied to be able to investigate Torsten Czuppon on suspicion of insult after he had spoken to the spokesman for Ahmadiyya in June 2023 community in Erfurt, Suleman Malik, is said to have verbally attacked. The committee also approved this motion with a majority of the MPs present. A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Erfurt did not want to comment on this application from his authority at the moment.
The police officer Czuppon has already been sentenced to a large fine in another case by the Erfurt district court for the persecution of innocent people. This judgment is not yet final.
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