Hasskriminalität und Volksverhetzung

1What is it about?

Hate crime refers to offences committed out of prejudice against the victim’s actual or perceived membership of a group, for example because of origin, religion, skin colour, sexual identity or belief. The criminal core is often incitement to hatred (Section 130 of the Criminal Code), which covers, among other things, inciting hatred against segments of the population, insult, malicious disparagement, and the approval, denial or trivialisation of the Holocaust or comparable acts.

In addition, insult (Section 185 of the Criminal Code), defamation and slander (Sections 186, 187 of the Criminal Code) often come into play, as do, in the case of physical attacks, bodily harm offences with a hate-motivated background. In sentencing, inhumane motives, in particular racist or xenophobic ones, are expressly taken into account as an aggravating factor (Section 46(2) of the Criminal Code). Many proceedings today concern statements made on social networks, in messenger groups or in comment sections.

2Typical case scenarios

• Allegation of incitement to hatred over a post, comment or shared content on social media.
• Complaint over a statement made at an assembly, rally or public dispute.
• Allegation of insult or threatening behaviour with a racist, religious or xenophobic background.
• You have yourself become the victim of hate speech, a threat or an attack and wish to file a criminal complaint or join the proceedings as a joint plaintiff.
• Search and seizure of a mobile phone or computer on suspicion of distributing unlawful content.
• Questions of delimitation between permissible expression of opinion and unlawful incitement, for example in the case of political or religious criticism.

3Frequently asked questions

4How the proceedings unfold

1. Complaint or opening of investigationA criminal complaint by those affected or third parties, or the matter being taken up by the authorities, often via reporting offices for online hate speech.
2. Securing the contentSeizure of devices, screenshots and connection data, identification of account holders.
3. Investigation proceedingsQuestioning or written hearing, assessment of the statement in context.
4. ConclusionDiscontinuation, a penalty order, or an indictment; for first-time offenders, discontinuation subject to conditions is common.

5What requires particular attention

• Do not comment on the allegation to the police or on social media before you have received advice.
• Do not delete any posts, messages or accounts; this can be regarded as tampering with evidence and may destroy exonerating material.
• If you are affected, save screenshots with a timestamp and URL before the content is deleted.
• The context of a statement, such as satire, a quotation or artistic form, can be decisive and should be documented.

6How we defend you

We carefully examine the exact wording and the context of the statement: whether the line into criminal liability was actually crossed is often a question of evaluation in which nuances are decisive. We also examine whether attributing the statement to you as its originator or distributor is even sustainable.

As defence counsel, we work towards discontinuation or, where necessary, a consistent defence before the court. If you have yourself been affected by hate speech or a hate-motivated attack, we support you in filing a complaint and represent your interests as a joint plaintiff.