DRESDEN: German right-wing politician Frauke Petry kept her silence on Monday as she appeared in court on perjury charges she has said amount to nothing more than a witch-hunt by mainstream politicians.
Petry led the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to victory in 2017, when it entered the national parliament for the first time.
She quit the party a day after the election, warning that the AfD had become too radical. However, she remains a Bundestag member as an independent politician.
The perjury charges stem from allegations she misled an election panel about repayments of campaign finances while running for a seat in the legislature of the state of Saxony.
Her lawyer told the court on Monday that she would not speak at this point, before calling for the charges to be cleared.
“The clarity of the law, the time elapsed and the obvious circumstances beg for this case to be stopped now at the latest,” Carsten Brunzel told the court.
Petry stands accused of telling the state elections commission in 2015 that a party lending her money for her campaign had the option of converting that loan into a party donation should she gain a seat in the state legislature.
But documents related to the loan showed that Petry had said before hand she did not intend to repay the loan. Petry has said she misspoke.
She condemned the case on Friday, calling it politically motivated.
“The way this case has developed, it’s a clear example of the way the [Christian Democrats, the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel] and the prosecutors linked to them have been trying for four years to hurt me as a person and a politician.” If she’s found guilty of perjury, she could lose her right to sit in parliament and to stand in further elections.
The court was on Monday to hear testimony from investigating police officers as well as a senior member of the election commission. — dpa
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
