Flashback January 2022: Two police officers are shot on a district road in the Palatinate near Kaiserslautern, Germany . They were on a routine civilian patrol trip and were called by radio: dead game had been found on a vehicle. As the officers approached the vehicle, shots were fired; both police officers died from their injuries. Very quickly after the incident, the police arrested two suspects.
But at the beginning of June this year, shortly before the trial against the alleged shooter began, the homes of another 75 people were searched because they were accused of spreading hate posts on Facebook. This measure is causing a stir.
Not everyone is responsible for criminal posting
One of the police raids was justified by giving someone a Facebook like. This is questionable for many people, as there would supposedly be no reason for a house search.
However, the Meiningen Regional Court declares that the procedure according to the new decision of August 5, 2022 was legal and proportionate. Accordingly, a raid would only not take place “if other, less intrusive measures that do not jeopardize the purpose of the investigation are available.” However, this was not the case in the case of the like on the Facebook platform.
Lawful house search – contribution made own
The user is specifically accused of liking a third party's comment on Facebook. This is problematic because, according to the court order, the accused “commented on the post and thereby made it his own”. The liked comment was reprehensible in that it could be read under a post about a memorial for the murdered police officers with the words: “Not a single second of silence for these creatures.”
With the like, the accused, so to speak, agreed with the opinion of the comment, which now led, among other things, to a house search. The accusation : Rewarding or endorsing crimes according to §140 StGB and denigrating the memory of the deceased according to §189 StGB.
As “ Der Standard ” reports, 180 mobile devices were confiscated as part of the 75 raids, just like in the case of the Facebook like.
The regional court informed that this measure was justified because it involved evidence. In addition, the August decision states that in the event of a conviction, one must take into account “that the distribution via Facebook and therefore on the Internet took place over a potentially very large, even unlimited group of people,” so that theoretically every Internet user can read the comment and could have seen his likes.
According to the accused, a constitutional complaint will soon be filed against the raid decision: “It is not about the individual case, but about the fundamental question of whether simply liking on social media can be a criminal offense and can lead to house searches.”
Author: Nick L.
Source:
Standard , telephoto mirror
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