A member of the state parliament is on trial because he is said to have leaked secrets during his time as a police officer. He was acquitted in a first trial, and now a second verdict is pending.
More than a year after the acquittal of AfD member of parliament Richard Graupner, the prosecution insists on the allegation of breach of official secrets. On Tuesday, the public prosecutor’s office asked the Schweinfurt district court to sentence the 59-year-old to a fine of 120 daily rates of 200 euros. The defense of the former police officer pleaded for acquittal. The verdict is to be announced on November 28, a court spokesman said.
The Schweinfurt district court dealt with the allegations – including unauthorized data acquisition – a year ago. Because the public prosecutor’s office appealed after Graupner’s acquittal in October 2021, the case has now ended up before the regional court. According to the prosecution, Graupner passed on official secrets during his time as a police officer. At the time, he headed a search group for the traffic police in Schweinfurt-Werneck. An acquaintance of Graupner had difficulties with the police and was being investigated for resisting law enforcement officers. The man claims to have received information from the internal police system about his case from a police officer, he told the police at the time. He left open whether it was Chief Inspector Graupner.
Because of the two administrative offenses – the unauthorized data acquisition – the public prosecutor’s office pleaded before the district court for a fine of 500 euros each. Here, too, the politician’s defense demanded an acquittal. At the time, the district court did not see sufficient evidence in its judgment that the 59-year-old had revealed information about the investigation. There are clear indications that Graupner was a perpetrator. Residual doubts cannot be completely eliminated, it said.
The 59-year-old has been a member of the state parliament for the AfD since 2018. Before that he was active in local politics in Schweinfurt, including for the Republicans. The allegations come from 2018, before his time as a member of the state parliament.