After being sentenced to a youth sentence for a protest at an authority, a climate activist from the Ravensburg area achieved success before the Federal Constitutional Court. The Karlsruhe judges upheld the young man’s constitutional complaint and ordered a new hearing at the Augsburg district court, as a spokesman for the Federal Constitutional Court explained on Friday.
The then 20-year-old climate activist was convicted by the district court in June 2023 along with another defendant for slander against political figures and trespassing. The Augsburg regional court later confirmed the decision. The 20-year-old received a three-week prison sentence. According to the prosecution’s indictment, the defendants occupied the Swabian district government in Augsburg in October 2022 and insulted the then district president as corrupt. The background to the protest was a permit in connection with forest clearing, which was sharply criticized by the activists.
The Federal Constitutional Court criticized the fact that the Augsburg judges had inadequately examined the right to freedom of expression when convicting him of defamation based on allegations of corruption. The relevant judgments against the climate activist were overturned and the district court must now decide again. The Federal Constitutional Court emphasizes that this has not decided whether the statement about the high government official was admissible. The offense of insult has not yet been part of the proceedings.
The Karlsruhe judges did not go into the aspect of trespassing in detail in their decision. “Climate protection is not a crime,” climate activists commented on the decision in a statement. According to them, the convicted activist had to be released early from the arrest he was currently serving because of the Constitutional Court decision.