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Gil Ofarim has to appear in court in October

The musician Gil Ofarim has to answer in court for his public anti-Semitism allegations against a Leipzig hotel.

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Gil Ofarim has to appear in court in October

The musician Gil Ofarim has to answer in court for his public anti-Semitism allegations against a Leipzig hotel. The regional court in Leipzig announced on Wednesday that it had admitted the charges of false suspicion and defamation and opened the main proceedings. The trial is scheduled to begin on October 24.

A year ago, Ofarim described in a viral video that a hotel employee had asked him to take off his chain with the Star of David, otherwise he would not be able to check in. According to the public prosecutor's office in Leipzig, the incident did not happen that way. The employee concerned had filed a complaint. According to the court, he appears as a joint plaintiff in the process.

The presumption of innocence applies to Ofarim until the final conclusion of the proceedings. The 40-year-old had not recently spoken publicly. One of his attorneys, Markus Hennig, announced a statement from the defense team for Thursday. Ofarim was born in Munich, he is the son of the Israeli singer Abi Ofarim, who died in 2018.

The 6th Criminal Chamber of the Leipzig Regional Court allowed the charges to remain unchanged. The court also issued a so-called legal notice that in the event of a conviction, the offense of defamation could possibly also be fulfilled.

The district court also assumes that it is responsible for the process because of the special importance of the case. It follows the assessment of the public prosecutor's office.

Ofarim's Munich lawyer Alexander Stevens criticized in August that the charges had not been brought to the district court. It cannot be denied that the Leipzig judiciary could aim for a "show trial". According to the lawyers, this is also shown by the number of judges in the criminal chamber, which is otherwise only provided for exceptionally serious crimes such as murder and manslaughter. In addition, the defense attorneys stated that the court itself was probably not convinced of the musician's conviction if it pointed out that Ofarim's behavior could also be regarded as "slander".

In addition, the 40-year-old's lawyers accused the court of not prioritizing the constitutional truth-finding process, but rather a "continuation of the media and political prejudice that has already taken place" in order to "protect the city of Leipzig and thus also Saxony from the confirmation of a common to wash away prejudice".

The regional court also announced on Wednesday that the Leipzig public prosecutor's office had brought another charge against Ofarim. It deals with false affidavits, fraud and attempted fraud. The court has not yet decided on the opening of these proceedings.

The background to the further charges are two applications for an injunction, with which Ofarim took action against press releases. In it he is said to have "untruthfully swore that he never said that the video he created should "go viral", although he is also said to have repeated what the public prosecutor saw as inaccurate statements about the hotel employee's words," shared this dish with.

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