Status: 03/31/2022 3:50 p.m
In October, the singer Ofarim claimed that he had been subjected to anti-Semitic insults in a Leipzig hotel. Prosecutors have now filed defamation charges against him. The incident did not happen that way.
About six months ago, the musician Gil Ofarim had raised anti-Semitism allegations against an employee of a Leipzig hotel. The public prosecutor’s office in Leipzig has now filed charges of false suspicion and defamation against the artist. This was announced by the authority.
The event, as described by Ofarim in his published video, “didn’t actually happen,” said the public prosecutor. The musician told the untruth.
Ofarim recorded the video in front of the hotel in early October 2021 and said in it that an employee of the hotel had asked him to take off his necklace with the Star of David – only then would he let him check in. The accused rejected this account, but the hotel initially released him from his duties. The video went viral and triggered numerous expressions of solidarity. The alleged incident sparked a debate about anti-Semitism in Germany.
Witnesses heard, video recordings checked
Numerous witnesses were heard and the video recordings of several surveillance cameras in the hotel area were checked. A digital forensic expert was commissioned to view and assess the video recordings from several surveillance cameras. According to the information, there was apparently no chain with a star around the singer’s neck on the recordings.
Ofarim is also accused of repeating his claims about the alleged course of events during his police interrogation on October 12, 2021 and reporting the hotel employee against his better knowledge, it is said. The affected hotel employee defended himself and in turn reported the musician for defamation. The preliminary investigation against the hotel employee has now been discontinued.
Leipzig Regional Court decides on charges
In view of the great public awareness of the video, which was viewed many times, the public discussion that followed and the continuing great interest of the media and the public in the matter, the public prosecutor’s office did not, due to the special importance of the case, accept the indictment as a district court, but raised to the district court of Leipzig. This will now decide on the admission of the indictment and the opening of the main proceedings.