A year after the reported incident, the verdict has been reached!
Criminal proceedings against Markus Häcker (50) were intended to clarify whether he insulted a reporter by making a Nazi comparison in a speech on the market square in Waren (Müritz). Yesterday, Wednesday, the DFB video referee was acquitted in court.
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The accusation: On October 2, 2023, Häcker is said to have insulted the then chief reporter of the Müritz-Zeitung (Nordkurier), Ingmar Nehls, at the Monday demonstration in Waren (Müritz) by comparing him to Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels († 1945).
The former assistant referee (182 appearances in the Bundesliga) is quoted by the police as follows: “… in order to spread this nonsense, they need their propagandists around Joseph G., um Ingmar Nehls and, driven by their fear, the people agree. “
According to the public prosecutor’s office, this was a rhetorical production and a deliberate comparison with the Reich propaganda leader – and an insult. Häcker, on the other hand, always denied having spoken the “G” and an intention behind the slip of the tongue. However, Häcker admitted that he had once referred to the reporter as a “bratwurst” in a text message.
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For Häcker, main organizer and regular speaker at the demonstrations in his hometown of Waren, the crucial piece of evidence: the video evidence!
Judge Rolandträger and the public prosecutor listened to a ten-second video excerpt of Häcker’s speech several times and came to the conclusion that they did not hear a “G”. It is not at all clear who could be meant by “Propagandist Joseph”. And the public prosecutor also ultimately demanded an acquittal.
Häcker (a civil servant as a surveyor for the Mecklenburg Lake District) testified during the trial that the district had used the ongoing criminal proceedings as an opportunity to take disciplinary action against him.
Referee boss Knut Kircher (55) to BILD: “We were informed about it. But the referee appointments were completely free of this. One is his work at DFB Schiri GmbH, the other is his leisure activities. We only judge what he does as a video assistant, as a VAR – and he was impeccable there.”
