Was German politician Marie-Thérèse Kaiser convicted and fined in May 2024 solely for sharing statistics regarding sexual assaults committed by Afghan immigrants? No, that's not true: Kaiser was found guilty of "incitement to hatred" under the German Criminal Code, not merely posting government figures. The law stipulates that individuals who incite hatred against specific groups based on nationality, race, religion or ethnicity, or who assault the dignity of others through insults or defamation may face imprisonment or a fine.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter, by End Wokeness on May 6, 2024. The post's caption said:
German politician of the AFD party, Marie-Thérèse Kaiser was just convicted & fined $6,000+
Her crime? Posting statistics showing that Afghan immigrants are disproportionately committing sexuaI assauIt in Germany.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue May 7 16:22:42 2024 UTC)
The post
The End Wokeness claim has been widely reposted across social media, including being shared and amplified by X owner Elon Musk (archived here) on May 6, 2024. The caption to Musk's post said:
Are you saying the fine was for repeating accurate government statistics?
Was there anything inaccurate in what she said?
The law
Kaiser, a right-leaning Alternative for Germany (AfD) party member, was convicted under Section 130 of the German Criminal Code. That section of the code, found on page 68, is called "volksverhetzung" in German or, in its official English translation, "incitement to hatred."
The law stipulates that individuals who incite hatred against specific groups based on nationality, race, religion or ethnicity, or who assault the dignity of others through insults or defamation, may face imprisonment ranging from three months to five years. Furthermore, those who distribute, display or produce materials inciting hatred or assaulting dignity may face imprisonment for up to three years or a fine.
The German news website Kreiszeitung reported that Kaiser was fined 6,000 euros or about $6,500 for referring to Afghans as rapists on her social media profiles in August 2021. This is what it says in English, according to Google Translate:
Afghanistan refugees; Hamburg SPD mayor for 'unbureaucratic' admission; Welcoming culture for gang rape?
Kaiser's comments followed an offer by Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher for the city to take 200 Afghan refugees following the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, also in August 2021.
The news reports about Kaiser's conviction did not mention her being sanctioned for sharing statistics.
Statistics
The politician did indeed quote statistics on sexual assaults, just as End Wokeness claimed, but it was in a separate social media post, not the one she was convicted for. Written in German, the post's caption says the following, according to Google Translate:
#Welcome culture for #group rape? Hamburger Abendblatt June 8th, 2021: 'One in three Hamburg residents has foreign roots. (...) What is striking is the large proportion of young people with a # migration background. (...) 53.4% of all under-18-year-old Hamburg residents has foreign roots(...)'
The post did not specifically mention Afghan refugees, just migrants in general.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue May 7 19:41:20 2024 UTC)
In a direct response to Musk's May 6, 2024, post (archived here), Kaiser doubled down on the false claim that her statistics got her in trouble with the German court system. She wrote in English:
In 2021 the mayor of Hamburg called for the unbureaucratic acceptance of as many Afghan refugees as possible. He wanted to start with 200 people plus families. I used official statistics to illustrate the risk that there could be gang rapists among them. Statistically speaking, this is likely, because in Germany, Afghans are disproportionately represented as perpetrators of gang rapes. I did not label all Afghans as gang rapists, as the court is suggesting.
But the court disagreed.
