Hate postings

Conditional imprisonment for violation of the Prohibition Act

The defendant pleaded not guilty before the judge.(Bild: Chantall Dorn)

He published hate postings on X, and Hitler photos were found on his cell phone. A 31-year-old man had to stand trial for all of this in Feldkirch (Vorarlberg) on Thursday.  

He has a family, is blameless, upright and hard-working. He has also been a volunteer paramedic for years - and a member of the fire department. Friends and superiors describe the accused (31) as a philanthropist, regardless of skin color or nationality. But is there really a clean slate behind the defendant's clean bill of health? It is two o'clock in the morning when the accused receives a war photo with the words "Free Palestine" on his cell phone. Shortly afterwards, he adds the words "He planned it" and posts the whole thing on his X account.

When he is confronted by the fire chief the next day, he immediately deletes the post. But what he doesn't know is that an observant citizen has long since taken a screenshot of the post and reported the 31-year-old to the police. During a house search, the police confiscate two cell phones, the analysis of which reveals terrible things. They found a picture showing Adolf Hitler - with the text: "I will shoot you, Jew!" Under another Hitler photo, the text reads: "I could kill all the Jews...!"

Conditional prison sentence and fine
Which is why the 31-year-old now has to answer to the jury for National Socialist reactivation. During the trial, the young man denied being a racist. "I have 1,300 followers or contacts and am constantly being sent things. But I don't read it at all." He didn't even read the Palestine post properly. He just saw the picture and posted it. He didn't know anything about the Hitler pictures. In the end, the defendant was found not guilty of violating the Prohibition Act by five votes to three: Ten months conditional imprisonment and a 7800 euro fine.