Judicial Official Loses Civil Service Status Over Racist Chats
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig removed a prison service officer from North Rhine-Westphalia from office. A colleague was only demoted because he is addressing his misconduct.
Officer Removed from Office Over Racist Chats
According to n-tv, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig removed a prison service officer from North Rhine-Westphalia from the civil service. The man had shared incitement to hatred and far-right extremist content in a chat group with colleagues, partly glorifying Nazism.
The former officer had already been convicted by final judgment of incitement to hatred and use of insignia of unconstitutional organisations and sentenced to a fine. North Rhine-Westphalia subsequently filed a disciplinary action to remove him from public service. The Administrative Court in Düsseldorf and later the Higher Administrative Court in Münster upheld this.
The Federal Administrative Court has now confirmed this decision finally. The officer's appeal was unsuccessful even at the highest instance. The court determined that the loss of civil service status is justified because the course of criminal conviction for incitement to hatred is incompatible with the trust required for office.
A colleague of the man was treated differently. The disciplinary action for removal from the civil service was reversed on appeal in the second instance – he was only demoted by one rank. The Federal Court justified this on the grounds that the officer made efforts to address his misconduct. Furthermore, his contributions in the chat group were not as serious as those of the first man. The court therefore saw no permanent loss of trust.
Source: n-tv