ADF International sees “no winner” in Latzel court case
Pastor Olaf Latzel (left) and his lawyer Sacha Böttner in the courtroom this week. Photo Twitter
Central Europe
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International had hoped more from the German court case against pastor Olaf Latzel. This week, the case ended not with an authoritative legal decision in favour of freedom of expression but a dismissal conditional upon the payment of 5,000 euros.
Due to its ongoing involvement in Europe’s leading free speech case in Finland, ADF International followed pastor Latzel’s trial with interest and growing concern. Felix Böllmann, Director of European Advocacy from ADF’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, said, “There is no winner in this case, and the biggest loss is for freedom of expression.”
That Latzel reached a financial settlement did not surprise Böllmann. “After nearly four years in the courts, this needed to end. German lawyers sometimes refer to such a dismissal as the “minor acquittal”. There is no guilt, no verdict, and thus a clean record.”
“This settlement should have been reached four years ago”, he added. “Legally speaking, the trial did not take anything forward; all involved, including Pastor Latzel, the prosecution, and the various courts, suffer unnecessary reputational damage,” Böllmann analyses.
“The judge said that whether pastor Latzel’s words are punishable under the law remains “controversial among lawyers”. That means that people still don’t know how far the freedom of expression reaches but are left with the chilling effect of a trial that itself served as the punishment. The whole thing could happen again. For us, as an organisation that defends the right to speak freely, this is a disappointment”, Böllmann concluded.
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