The Bavarian Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) parliamentary group on Friday, October 27th, issued a public statement revealing that the Würzburg public prosecutor’s office had issued an arrest warrant against newly-elected AfD MP Daniel Halemba without providing a reason why.
The law firm representing the 22-year-old AfD lawmaker, who is set to become the youngest politician in the Bavarian chamber when it sits for its first session next week, said the investigation was being carried out for “politically motivated reasons during election campaigns on suspicion of incitement to hatred for the use of symbols of unconstitutional organization,” Berlin-based daily Junge Freiheit reports.
The court proceedings allegedly stem from a photograph that was taken of a wine bottle upon which a symbol prohibited by Section 130 of the Criminal Code, pertaining to incitement to hatred, was shown. According to authorities, the photo was taken at the residence of the Teutonia Prague fraternity, where Halemba was living, in Würzburg.
Police, however, during a raid of the residence last month, failed to locate the alleged wine bottle adorned with the illegal image. Apparently, and rather conveniently, other material authorities called “suspicious” was found while the search was being conducted, Lubravko Mandić, Halemba’s lawyer said.
Additionally, Mandić said that following a “preliminary assessment, there is no truth to all the allegations of the members of the Prague Teutonia,” and added that there is “no urgent suspicion whatsoever.” He also alleges that police exerted undue pressure on individuals facing charges to compel them to make an incriminating statement that would implicate others. When both coercion and the proposal of a ‘deal’ proved ineffective, an arrest warrant was issued for Halemba.
Halemba, for his part, commented on the matter in a video message posted to social media networks, saying that the state was using its might to suppress the AfD. He argued that the state sought to imprison him three days before the beginning of the new parliamentary session with a “completely arbitrary arrest warrant” and accused the CSU of “hunting” the democratic opposition.
“This is yet another case of abuse by the police apparatus, which seeks to intimidate and defame its enemies, against the democratic opposition,” AfD MP Petr Bystron, who serves as the party’s federal foreign policy spokesman, told The European Conservative:
The AfD is the opposition leader in Bavaria. In the state parliament. Halemba would have been the youngest member of parliament to lead the opening session. Now, this news has been replaced by headlines about this political arrest warrant. While one might expect to see the weaponization of the states against the opposition in states like Turkey, it’s shocking to see it happening in Germany.
Bavarian AfD parliamentary group leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner called the proceedings against her colleague an “indictment of our democracy.”
Sven W. Titschler, the deputy chairman of the AfD’s parliamentary group in North Rhine Westphalia compared the Bavarian state’s actions, correctly or incorrectly, to Nazi Germany, writing on Twitter: “Fun fact: The last time German MPs were locked up shortly before the constitution of their parliament was in 1933.”
Halemba, after having turned himself in on Monday, October 30th, is expected to be brought before a judge the same day.