Sedition in Germany and Til

The explanation of the accusation against Til Schweiger for sedition?

This got laid out late yesterday by some report connected to 'Focus', the German news magazine.  What they say is that there was a change to the criminal code back in late January of this year (27 Jan 2015 to be precise).

The act of sedition now reads that sedition is any person in a way that is likely to disturb the public peace against a national, racial, religious or ethnic origin of their group against parts of the population or against an individual because of his membership of a group aforementioned or any part of the population to incite hatred, violence or arbitrary measures.

The sedition change then prescribes the punishment.....three months to five years of prison.

What triggered the change to the law?  That's not clear.  Germany had used the old reference for the law back in 2013 to charge a 74-year-old retiree of making statements against Islam.  The end result....a conviction....while the prosecutor wanted the old gal thrown into jail for ninety days....the judge opted for three years of probation and a thousand Euro fine.

If you read the definition carefully....you can only use sedition against an event that involves religion, ethnical background, race, or nationality.  If you were using harsh words or talk to condemn capitalism or urge riots against the EU Bank in Frankfurt.....it wouldn't fall under sedition....even though you were inciting a group to riot against the public structure.  You could use harsh words against the cops after a major riot at some soccer game, but that wouldn't involve four key elements of sedition....so the cops couldn't charge you with sedition and inciting a riot.

Sedition, under most country laws....has to deal more with talking against the government....rather than an individual.  In this case....the law was shaped to fit the individual.

You could state you were against a certain religion, but if your words were valued to be words of hate or suggesting violence against the group....you'd be dragged into court.  Oddly, you could use a religious event to discuss non-believers and condemn them to 'hell'....but I doubt if the legal guys of the German court system would utilize that suggestion for sedition.  If the non-believers reacted to the threat of 'hell' and a riot ensued....well, that would be different and they'd be forced into some stupid position of protecting the sedition law.

Confusing?  Yeah.  Luckily, no one really believes that Til is in much trouble, and other than getting him on some rant and all upset to the tenth degree (rather than the ninth degree)....there's not much else to say about this episode.  It'll quietly end by Christmas and everyone will simply move on.