German courts issue injunction against comic

A German court has slapped an injunction on comedian Jan Böhmermann, preventing him repeating his poem insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The regional court in Hamburg ruled that the thin-skinned leader should not have to ‘tolerate’ the lines again.

Although the court said it had weighed up the right to free speech,  it nonetheless banned repetition of the poem ‘in view of its abusive and libellous content’.

The poem suggested Erdogan had sex with goats and sheep and watched child pornography, while repressing Kurdish people. Only six lines of verse, about Turkey's treatment of minorities, escaped the injunction.

Separately, Erdogan has demanded criminal proceedings against Böhmermann as German laws ban insults to foreign leaders.

Chancellor Angela Merkel walked into a political minefield after deciding to allow prosecutors to investigate, but they have yet to decide whether to file charges.

Her decision prompted criticism that the German government had kowtowed to the Turkish regime – which has clamped down on press freedoms at home – in exchange for its help tackling the  refugee crisis.

An MP last week used Parliamentary immunity to read out the  poem in the Bundestag last week.

Published: 18 May 2016