Berlin airport arrest: Publicist jailed over alleged smears against mayor Wegner
Federal police executed an arrest warrant against a former Berlin doctor. Prosecutors are pursuing several dozen cases against him, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported.
Symbolic image · Photo: Arne Müseler / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
A former Berlin doctor and publicist, known mainly as an opponent of coronavirus restrictions, has been remanded in custody. Federal police arrested the man at Berlin's BER airport on Wednesday morning on an outstanding warrant, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported. He was brought before a judge, with flight risk cited as grounds for detention. The suspect had spent long periods abroad after investigations began, and his most recent registered address in Switzerland was no longer valid, according to the report.
Berlin prosecutors are pursuing several dozen open cases against the man, the paper said. The allegations include insult, incitement to hatred, defamation and the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations. Central to the case are several alleged defamations of political figures, among them Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner of the Christian Democrats. The offense carries a minimum sentence of six months. According to the report, he repeatedly defamed Wegner on Telegram and referred to police officers with Nazi-era terms.
The cases could be combined into a single indictment, the paper reported. The suspect's lawyer confirmed the arrest on the platform X and appealed for donations, describing the allegations as so-called "lese-majesty." The man is presumed innocent until convicted.