Chemnitz lawyer and co-founder of the small party “Freie Sachsen”, classified by the Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution as a right-wing extremist, Martin Kohlmann, was convicted on Tuesday by the Chemnitz district court for inciting hatred. The court imposed a fine of 120 daily rates of 50 euros each, for a total of 6,000 euros *. The ruling is not yet legally binding.
Holocaust statement in the Chemnitz city council
Martin Kohlmann has been accused of denying, in his speech to the Chemnitz city council in October 2021, that there were gas chambers on the territory of the German Reich during the National Socialist era.
Kohlmann was sued on suspicion of Holocaust denial by a Belgian lawyer who often works in Chemnitz.
Already convicted of sedition
Two years ago, Kohlmann was sentenced to a € 2,100 fine for hate speech by the district court in Verden, Lower Saxony, for making a similar statement. At the time, according to the court, he also denied the existence of gas chambers on German Reich territory during the Nazis as a defense attorney for a former NPD city councilor. Kohlmann appealed the verdict, which was approved by the Verden Regional Court in May of this year, according to the Courier Weser has been confirmed.
Martin Kohlmann: “I only commented on the verdict”.
Martin Kohlmann told MDR SACHSEN that at the relevant Chemnitz city council meeting, which is now the subject of legal controversy, he was asked to step down from his city council mandate due to the Verden ruling. “I then commented on the verdict of the Verden district court and did not comment on the content of the Holocaust,” said the head of the right-wing extremist group “Freie Sachsen”. Kohlmann described the decision as a “clear misjudgment”. He will also have legal action against the Chemnitz ruling.
* Editor’s note: We have specified the penalty information and added the imposed daily rates.
