Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sued Bundestag Vice Speaker Wolfgang Kubicki. During his election campaign, Kubiki called Erdogan a "little sewer rat" and sharply criticized the Turkish presidentʼs refugee policy.
Spiegel writes about it.
In a letter dated September 29, Cologne lawyer Mustafa Kaplan filed a lawsuit against Kubiki on behalf of Erdogan for insult and defamation. This seven-page document came to the public prosecutorʼs office in Hildesheim through the local jurisdiction.
It states that an insult is an "unlawful encroachment on another personʼs honor." Defamation is a false statement about a person to a third party "which is apt to bring the person concerned into disrepute." The lawyer believes that both criminal offenses were committed in this case.
In addition, it is difficult for Erdogan to accept Kubikiʼs statement "for religious reasons", "as Islam rejects such insults", the document said.
In response, Kubiki tried to defend his words. He said that the "little sewer rat" is a "small, cute but clever and cunning creature", and also mentioned the game “Calle the Sewer Rat” and the animated film “Ratatouille”.
Attorney Kaplan evaluates such remarks as a defense. Kaplan believes that neither “Calle the Sewer Rat” nor “Ratatouille” had “any relation to Turkeyʼs refugee policy”.
This case has already caused a diplomatic crisis. Turkey summoned the German ambassador because of Vice Speaker Kibikiʼs statements.
- In May, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused to go to Kyiv due to the fact that shortly before that, the Ukrainian authorities refused to receive the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the capital. Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany Andriy Melnyk called Sholtz an "offended sausage". And later, the German butcher Walter Adam wanted to send a gift package with liver sausage to the Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk because of the words about Scholz.