Convicted of defamation: Woman in the Krichbaum case gets probation

Pforzheim. Before the Pforzheim district court, the verdict was made against a 46-year-old German with Romanian roots. According to the indictment by the Pforzheim public prosecutor's office, she had repeatedly claimed publicly that Oana Krichbaum, the wife of the Pforzheim CDU member of the Bundestag Gunther Krichbaum, was involved in child trafficking scandals in Romania a good 20 years ago, put donations into her own pocket and her husband covered it with its political weight.

Judge Patrick Stemler found it proven that the four Facebook posts by the accused to which the indictment referred exceeded the limits of freedom of expression. It was a matter of allegations of fact, "and these allegations must be proven," Stemler explained. However, the accused "did not prove the truth." He sentenced the accused to six months' imprisonment on probation for defamation and defamation of a public figure. He set the probationary period for three years. In addition, the woman must do 80 hours of community service.

The accused had repeatedly referred to Oana Krichbaum as a "child trafficker". She is referring to the time in the 1990s, when Krichbaum's wife was still working as a lawyer in Romania - among other things for a foundation that took care of the adoption of Romanian children in Germany. In the course of the process, around 800 online posts, e-mails and other documents were viewed, with which the accused had repeatedly approached the personal and political environment of the Krichbaums - including the Pforzheim CDU or the German-Romanian Society - since 2012 be. In this context, Krichbaum spoke of "hate mail", "Internet hate speech" and "stalking".

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