Gil Ofarim
Leipzig public prosecutor accuses singer
Gil Ofarim caused a stir with an Instagram video in October 2021.
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Gil Ofarim could have to answer in court. The Leipzig public prosecutor’s office has brought charges of false suspicion.
Musician Gil Ofarim (39) may have to answer in court. The musician caused a wave of indignation with a video that he posted on Instagram on October 5, 2021. In it he said that he was allegedly asked by an employee of the Leipzig Westin Hotel to pack his necklace with a Star of David. Only then can he check in.
The public prosecutor’s office in Leipzig according to a statement on Thursday (March 31) the investigation against the hotel employee because of alleged anti-Semitic statements and false suspicion was dropped and charges were brought against Ofarim – because of false suspicion and defamation. This was preceded by mutual criminal charges and criminal complaints by the hotel employee and the singer.
“Extensive Investigation” completed
The preliminary investigation into allegations of insult, attempted coercion, incitement to hatred and false suspicion against the employee was discontinued because the investigations “did not result in sufficient suspicion,” the statement said.
Extensive investigations were carried out with witness interviews and the use of a digital forensic expert and it was concluded that, according to the public prosecutor’s office, “the events as described by Gil Ofarim in his published video did not actually occur”. On the other hand, the public prosecutor’s office brought charges against Gil Ofarim in two cases, one of them in combination with defamation, at the Regional Court of Leipzig because of the accusation of false suspicion.
The public prosecutor’s office accuses Gil Ofarim, among other things, of not only repeatedly and now expressly reporting his statements about the alleged course of events during the police interrogation on the evening of October 4, “in knowledge of their untruth, but also to the hotel employee because of his criminal complaint against him for defamation against his better knowledge because of the accusation of false suspicion and thus made himself liable to prosecution for false suspicion”.
The Leipzig Regional Court must now decide whether to allow the charges and whether to open the main proceedings.