Two weeks after the singer Gil Ofarim accused a receptionist of the Westin luxury hotel in Leipzig of anti-Semitism, the law firm commissioned by the hotel company to conduct internal investigations ended its work on Wednesday.
"The lawyers have reconstructed what happened in the hotel lobby and, taking into account all available evidence, came to the conclusion that there are no objectifiable indications that would justify taking criminal and / or labor law measures against the accused employee," it says in a message from the Cologne-based hotel operator, which the FAZ has received.
Stefan Locke
Correspondent for Saxony and Thuringia based in Dresden.
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Labor law measures against the employee would therefore not be initiated.
With a view to “the massive hostility to which the employee is still exposed”, the decision was made to initially “not yet fully employ him” from a welfare point of view.
Doubts about Ofarim's account
Ofarim had recorded an emotional cell phone video in front of the hotel in early October in which he accused a hotel employee, whom he called "Mr. W.", of not having checked him in after a long wait, but of having instead asked him to first remove his necklace with the Star of David, before he got a room. The video was then shared and commented on millions of times on the Internet. Thousands of people, including many artists and politicians, expressed solidarity with Ofarim; There were spontaneous demonstrations against anti-Semitism in front of the hotel.
Shortly after the alleged incident, however, there were considerable doubts about Ofarim's description. The police said that the affected hotel employee described the events "very differently" from Ofarim's version. When evaluating surveillance cameras from the hotel lobby, doubts arose as to whether Ofarim had even worn the chain while waiting to check in. According to media reports, the chain should not be seen on the surveillance videos. The hotel confirmed this indirectly on Wednesday and referred to an expert opinion from an expert specializing in image and video forensics.
The Leipzig public prosecutor has now questioned Ofarim as well as the hotel employee. There are criminal charges against both of them, at the same time both are also witnesses of what happened. Upon request, the authority announced that it was still investigating and would therefore not comment on the statements of the main participants or the content of the videos, nor would it assess the overall context.
However, in view of the great media attention, the work was under high pressure, said a spokesman.
However, as always, the principles of the presumption of innocence and fair trial apply.
Ofarim himself later made contradicting statements about whether he had worn the chain.
He had told the Bild newspaper that it was not a matter of whether the chain could be seen.
At the beginning of the week he said that he had definitely worn the necklace.