German court acquits satirist over social media post following Trump assassination attempt

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BERLIN (AP) — A German court on Wednesday acquitted a satirist who was charged with having approved of an assassination attempt against Donald Trump during last year’s U.S. election campaign in a social media post and disturbed the public peace.

In a quickly deleted post under his alias “El Hotzo” on X in July last year, Sebastian Hotz drew a parallel between Trump and “the last bus” and wrote “unfortunately just missed.” In a follow-up post, he wrote: “I find it absolutely fantastic when fascists die.”

A gunman opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, while Trump was campaigning for president last July, grazing Trump’s ear and killing one of his supporters in the crowd. Trump went on to win the White House in November.

Prosecutors charged Hotz with approval of offenses. At a one-day trial at the Tiergarten district court in Berlin, prosecutors called for the 29-year-old to be handed a 6,000-euro ($7,030) fine. They argued that the posts fell into the category of hate crimes and, because Hotz has nearly 740,000 followers on X, could disturb the public peace, German news agency dpa reported.

Hotz argued that what a satirist says should be understood as a joke, and that “playing with provocation” is his job.

Judge Andrea Wilms said in her ruling that Hotz’s post was satire that should go unpunished, even if the comments may have been tasteless. She argued that no one would feel called upon to commit acts of violence by “such clearly satirical utterances,” according to a court statement.

The German Journalists’ Association earlier this week criticized the trial as excessive and said that the case should be closed, arguing that satirical freedom should be interpreted generously. It noted that public broadcaster RBB already terminated its work with Hotz as a result of the post.