Hate-speech conviction in Vienna: 60-year-old woman ordered to pay fine
A 60-year-old woman has been convicted by the Vienna Regional Court for insulting Gaza activist Rafael E. The private prosecutor was a man who himself had been acquitted just a few weeks earlier.
Online insult: Vienna court convicts 60-year-old after hate comment
As reported by the Kronen Zeitung, the Vienna Regional Court has convicted a 60-year-old woman of insult to a partially suspended fine of 30 daily rates of four euros each. Court costs are also payable. In addition, the private prosecutor is entitled to pursue a civil damages claim.
The defendant had written the following beneath a video by Gaza activist and YouTuber Rafael E.: "Adolf would be proud of you – you prove that brown-dripping scum is not right-wing, but unlawful!" For the judge, this was a clear case of insult.
Private prosecutor himself acquitted just weeks earlier
The proceedings take on particular significance because of the background of the private prosecutor: Rafael E. had himself stood trial just a few weeks earlier. He had referred to Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger as a "monster" and "disgrace" and distorted her name to "Beate Genocide-Cleaner". The judge acquitted him – on the grounds that the limits of permissible criticism are drawn considerably wider for top politicians than for the general public.
Defender: E. must be able to take more himself
Defence lawyer Thomas Fried, who represented the 60-year-old, used this fact as a central argument: "Someone who dishes out as much as Mr E. must also be able to take more," Fried said in court.
The defendant explained that her comment had stemmed from outrage – over calls to boycott the football match between Austria and Israel, and over demands to exclude Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest. "Why shouldn't one be allowed to play football with Jews or sing with Jews?" she asked the judge. E. had contributed to the sharp rise in antisemitism in Austria through his repeated statements on the matter.
According to her own account, the defendant had also been preceded by an insult from another poster who had referred to her as a "Zionist Nazi bride". "That made me lose my temper," she said. Her comment had moreover not been directed solely at E., but at the entire "group" engaged in anti-Israel agitation.
Judge: Mutual insults do not justify one another
The judge did not accept this argument. "Just because one side hurls abuse does not mean that one may also hurl abuse," he stated in his judgment. The sentence is partially suspended: part of the fine is payable immediately, the remainder is suspended.
Source: Kronen Zeitung