German cops launch probe into Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas

2022-08-19

German cops launch probe into Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas after he accused Israel of committing ’50 Holocausts’ against his people during Berlin visit

At a joint press conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, Abbas had accused Israel of committing ’50 Holocausts’ against Palestinians since 1947
Police have received a complaint accusing Abbas of ‘relativising the Holocaust’
Any relevant findings by the police will be passed to Berlin prosecutors

Berlin police said Friday they have launched an investigation into Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas over his comments on the Holocaust during a recent visit to the German capital.

At a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, Abbas had accused Israel of committing ’50 Holocausts’ against Palestinians since 1947.

Police have received a complaint accusing Abbas of ‘relativising the Holocaust’ and are investigating ‘on suspicion of inciting hatred’, a police spokeswoman told AFP.

Berlin police said Friday they have launched an investigation into Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas (pictured in Berlin on Tuesday) over his comments on the Holocaust during a recent visit to the German capital

Any relevant findings will be passed to Berlin prosecutors who will eventually decide whether a crime has been committed.

Scholz did not immediately challenge Abbas on his comments but, following widespread criticism, tweeted on Wednesday that he was ‘disgusted by the outrageous remarks’ made by the Palestinian leader.

In Israel, Abbas’ remarks drew a hail of condemnation from Prime Minister Yair Lapid and others.

‘Mahmud Abbas accusing Israel of having committed ’50 Holocausts’ while standing on German soil is not only a moral disgrace, but a monstrous lie,’ Lapid wrote on Twitter.

Downplaying the Holocaust is a criminal offence in Germany, but the opening of a preliminary inquiry does not automatically entail a full investigation.

According to Germany’s Bild daily, the foreign ministry believes Abbas will benefit from diplomatic immunity because he was in Germany on an ‘official visit’.

At a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, Abbas had accused Israel of committing ’50 Holocausts’ against Palestinians since 1947

But Michael Kubiciel, a professor of criminal law quoted by Bild, said Abbas could only enjoy immunity if he had been in Germany ‘as a representative of another state’.

Germany does not recognise Palestine as a country, but maintains diplomatic relations with the Palestinian territories.

Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told AFP that ‘the positions of the president and Palestinian leaders are clear on all these issues and known to all’.

He referred to a statement from Abbas’s office on Wednesday calling the Holocaust ‘the most heinous crime in modern human history’ and adding that Abbas’s ‘answer was not intended to deny the singularity of the Holocaust that occurred in the last century’.

‘Hence there is no need or justification for this campaign against the president and the Palestinian project,’ the spokesman said on Friday.

Source: Read Full Article