THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
A man has been charged to the Aschaffenburg district court on Thursday (16 July) for having called for the commission of a criminal offence on a website on the subject of “citizen asylum”. The accused man from Hanau is listed as the person responsible in the imprint of the website, as the court and public prosecutor’s office confirmed on Wednesday.
A call was made on the website to grant “citizen asylum” to refugees threatened with deportation; that is, refugees should be accommodated in the homes of their helpers, if necessary hidden there.
According to the website’s operators, they see themselves as a campaign against an “inhuman deportation system”. The “social intervention” in the form of civil disobedience is “required by human rights” for as long as it takes for the deportations end, the website said.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the accused, being the person responsible for the website, has thus called for the commission of criminal acts. This is an official offence under Section 111 of the Criminal Code, which states that whoever “incites the commission of an unlawful act incurs the same penalty as an abettor”. Even though there is no proof to suggest that the man actually provided shelter to any failed asylum-seekers himself, he is being tried in the same manner under laws equating incitement to criminal offences to committing criminal offences.
The accused faces up to five years imprisonment or a fine if convicted.
Austin Ohaegbu
READ ALSO First deportation flight from Germany since coronavirus pandemic outbreak
