German MP faces police probe over anti-Muslim social media posts

Anti-Muslim tweets: AfD politician Beatrix von Storch
EPA
Robin de Peyer2 January 2018

Police have launched an investigation into a German MP after she posted anti-Muslim messages on social media.

Beatrix von Storch, who serves as deputy leader of the far-right AfD party, had her Twitter account suspended after she posted the remarks on New Year's Eve. She has since been able to continue posting on the site.

Her comments came after police in Cologne tweeted a message in Arabic, as well as English, French and German.

Von Storch accused the police of appeasing "barbaric, gang-raping Muslim hordes of men".

German authorities are now evaluating whether she should face a charge of incitement to hatred, according to the weekly magazine Der Spiegel.

After her Twitter account was suspended for 12 hours following the tweet, she also posted the same message on Facebook which also blocked the post.

The incident came as Germany began enforcing stringent laws aimed at combating hate speech on social media.

The measures mean sites have 24 hours to act after they are told of material which is breaching the law. If they do not, they can face fines of up to £44.3m.

Her comments came after dozens of women were sexually assaulted during New Year's Eve celebrations in Cologne in 2016. The attackers were largely of north African origin, police said.

In Berlin, a zone for women only was set up for this year's New Year celebrations.

The AfD made major gains in September's German elections to become the third largest party in the country's parliament.

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