Sawsan Chebli: SPD politician does not have to accept abusive criticism

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Sawsan Chebli: The lawsuit was dismissed in March

Photo: Christophe Gateau / picture alliance / dpa

The SPD politician Sawsan Chebli has successfully defended herself against a nasty Facebook comment. The SPD politician does not have to accept the designation as a "stupid piece of brain vacuum", according to the verdict. The author of a corresponding Facebook post was ordered to cease and desist, as the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court (OLG) announced without naming names. The statement was abusive criticism for which the author must be liable. He had not sufficiently secured his Facebook account against unauthorized access.

The starting point of the legal dispute was a TV report by the satirist Dieter Nuhr, which Chebli criticized. The chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in Brandenburg, Jan Redmann, commented on this on Facebook. One man commented on Redmann's contribution, among other things, with "Rarely seen such a stupid piece of brain vacuum in politics as Chebli". Chebli had the man warned because of the post, which has since been deleted, and then filed a lawsuit for injunctive relief and compensation for pain and suffering.

The man argued that he was not the author of the post, but that someone must have taken possession of his notebook. The Heilbronn Regional Court had dismissed the lawsuit and considered the contribution to be still covered by freedom of expression.

Chebli demanded compensation for pain and suffering in vain

This decision has now been overturned by the judges at the Higher Regional Court. The Senate considered it proven that the defendant had written the article. On the one hand, he distanced himself from the content, but on the other hand, he defended it by saying that he must be allowed to react to Chebli as a politician in order to "finish her off".

The defamation had been in the foreground, his statement no longer had any comprehensible connection to a factual dispute. The comment could no longer be regarded as an adequate reaction to Chebli's previous behaviour.

However, the court did not award her the compensation for pain and suffering demanded by Chebli. Despite the significant violation of personality rights, the prerequisites for this were not met. Chebli himself uses "strong words" and thus initiated the discourse in the first place. The decision is final.

asc/AFP