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Neo-Nazi party leader guilty in racism case

DDP/The Local
DDP/The Local - [email protected]
Neo-Nazi party leader guilty in racism case
Photo: DPA

Head of the neo-Nazi NPD party Udo Voigt was sentenced on Friday to a suspended sentence of seven months for incitement of hatred and slander in a racial discrimination trial.

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Voigt and two other NPD leaders were found guilty of offending German national footballer Patrick Owomoyela – who was born in Germany to a Nigerian father and a German mother – in a World Cup pamphlet printed in 2006. The cover of the planner showed a German football jersey with the caption, “White. Not just a shirt-colour! For a truly national team!”

The other two defendants, a 42-year-old and a 66-year-old, were sentenced to suspended sentences of seven and ten months respectively. All three NPD men must also pay fines of €2,000.

The case was centred on the number on the shirt pictured, which the state prosecutors said was 25, Owomoyela’s jersey number in the 2006 World Cup squad.

A second version of the pamphlet showed a mocked-up picture of the German national team with only one white team member featuring a text suggesting that the team was becoming overrun by dark-skinned immigrants. The prosecutors said that the flyer tried to disqualify non-white Germans the right to play for the national team.

By receiving suspended sentences the three will not serve any actual jail time.

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