German AfD politican found guilty of money laundering, coercion
A controversial member of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was found guilty on Monday of money laundering and coercion.
A district court in Würzburg ordered 24-year-old Daniel Halemba, the AfD’s top candidate in the Bavarian city ahead of local elections in March, to pay 160 daily fines of €190 ($225).
The verdict can still be appealed.
Prosecutors had charged Halemba with a slew of offences, including incitement to hatred over a banned song that promotes the expulsion of migrants from Germany, which was allegedly played at his birthday party.
Prosecutors said the song by disbanded neo-Nazi rock band Landser, which was classified as a criminal organization in 2005, was played from a USB stick owned by Halemba on his 21st birthday in July 2022.
Halemba was aware that the lyrics incite hatred towards Germany’s large Turkish community as they call for the forceful expulsion of citizens with Turkish roots, prosecutor Tobias Kostuch argued at the start of proceedings.
Halemba, a member of Bavaria’s state parliament, denied all accusations against him, arguing that he was not present at the party at the time in question. The court subsequently acquitted him of incitement to hatred.
He was also acquitted of attempted coercion related to the alleged harassment of a lawyer and damage to his office door.
However, the court found him guilty of having intimidated a witness in the preliminary investigation before his planned interrogation by the Würzburg public prosecutor’s office.
The charges of money laundering related to a four-figure sum transferred from a private account of Halemba to an account in a Baltic country, with the money said to originate from fraud committed by third parties.
The 24-year-old has repeatedly framed the proceedings as politically motivated, accusing prosecutors of mudslinging and “constructing a link to National Socialism” in his closing remarks.
