President Erdoğan appeals against Germany’s Böhmermann decision

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has appealed against German prosecutors’ decision to drop an investigation into a TV comic who wrote a crude poem about him.

German prosecutors previously said they were dropping the case against Jan Böhmermann, citing insufficient evidence that he had committed any crime.

In April, German Chancellor Angela Merkel accepted a Turkish request to allow the possible prosecution of Böhmermann for insulting a foreign head of state. German law required the government to grant permission before prosecutors could consider whether to press charges.

Böhmermann had read the poem on ZDF television to illustrate what he said would not be allowed in Germany, contrasting it with another channel’s earlier satirical song about Erdoğan.

Prosecutors in Mainz, where ZDF is based, said in a statement on Oct. 4 that “criminal actions could not be proven with the necessary certainty.”

Erdoğan’s lawyer appealed against the decision of the Mainz Prosecutor’s Office, with the appeal set to be examined in the chief public prosecutor’s office in Koblenz, Deutsche Welle reported on Oct. 10. 

The Turkish president previously filed another complaint regarding Böhmermann to enforce a ban on the poem in Hamburg. 

The trial will begin with a first hearing scheduled for Nov. 2.