Pforzheimer CDU councilor Oana Krichbaum defamed: imprisonment for the accused
A woman from the Enz district was sentenced to six months imprisonment without probation by the Foreign Chamber of the Karlsruhe Regional Court on Wednesday for defamation.
The woman was accused of repeatedly calling Oana Krichbaum, the wife of MP Gunther Krichbaum (CDU), both of whom acted as joint plaintiffs, as a child trafficker on Facebook. With the verdict, a story that has been smoldering for years comes to an end – at least for the time being.
4,000 pages of court files have accumulated in the process
In 2019, after five days of hearings, the district court sentenced the woman to six months probation. Both the defendants' defense and the public prosecutor's office had appealed against this. The process, which has now come to an end, dragged on for eleven days of negotiations, during which a mountain of files of around 4,000 pages had accumulated.
In his detailed reasoning, Judge Stefan Bien emphasized that the previously unconvicted defendant could not be dealt with by a suspended sentence. This is shown by the fact that she did not accept the 2019 judgment and then continued her activities. According to Bien, several disciplinary decisions in civil proceedings could not have slowed the woman down. "Only detention will stop them," the judge said.
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Again and again the woman tried to interrupt the judge during his verdict. "Now it's just me talking," Bien stopped. The basis of the judgment, he continued, was a careful balance between expression of opinion and personal protection rights.
That's not possible, the sources mentioned do not give it.
Stefan Bien, judge
The court did not see the statements by the convicts on Facebook that Oana Krichbaum was a child trafficker as covered by the fundamental right to freedom of expression. The media publications on the adoption of children from Romania, which the defense relied on, do not support this conclusion.
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The statements by the convicts that people with pedophilic tendencies were served through child trafficking are also unfounded. "That's not possible, the sources mentioned do not give it," said Bien.
Co-plaintiffs are relieved
At the end of the process, Gunther and Oana Krichbaum were relieved. According to Gunther Krichbaum, the judgment is an encouraging signal. It is important to defend oneself against defamation. However, he also pointed out that it was a rocky road.
As the defense attorney for the convicts announced immediately after the trial, he would appeal the verdict. It is unclear whether a provisionally discontinued procedure against the convict, which is pending at the Karlsruhe District Court for forgery of documents and attempted process fraud, will be resumed or not.
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