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Erfurt (dpa / th) - The Mühlhausen public prosecutor's office has applied for the lifting of the immunity of the controversial Thuringian AfD state party and parliamentary leader Björn Höcke.
The reason are two criminal charges - one of them on suspicion of sedition, as a spokesman for the public prosecutor said on Thursday at the request of the German press agency.
It should be about a post from Höcke in the social networks, which is said to have been directed against the sea rescue worker Carola Rackete.
According to the public prosecutor, Höcke is said to have sent a picture of Rackete with the line: "I imported torture, sexual violence, human trafficking and murder".
From the authority's point of view, Höcke could stigmatize a certain group of people - refugees - as criminals.
"We will check that and for this the immunity of Mr. Höcke must be lifted," said the spokesman.
It is unclear whether the suspicion is confirmed.
Höcke is considered the right wing in the AfD.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified him as a right-wing extremist leader in March.
The politician did not want to comment on the allegations when asked by his group on Thursday.
In Thuringia, the justice committee has to decide on the lifting of the immunity of members of parliament.
According to dpa information, the application from the public prosecutor's office has already arrived in the state parliament.
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The second case concerns the allegation of defamation.
Höcke described a woman in a Facebook post as an ex-terrorist who was helping strangers to plunder the welfare state.
The woman concerned then filed a criminal complaint, said the spokesman for the Mühlhausen public prosecutor's office.
The immunity of Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) is to be lifted because he showed the AfD member of the state parliament Stefan Möller the middle finger in the summer and described him as a "disgusting bastard".
Ramelow did not want to comment on the ongoing proceedings.
In a letter to the President of the Landtag, Birgit Keller, however, he asked the members of the Justice Committee to lift his immunity in order to enable the investigation.