Headlines
Indian-origin ex-German MP suspended from party
Berlin, June 2
A former Indian-origin German
parliamentarian caught with downloaded child porn has been suspended for
three years by his Social Democrats Party (spd), media reported on
Tuesday.
Sebastian Edathy quit the Bundestag (parliament) last
year and agreed in March to pay a 5,000-euro ($5,500) fine to settle
criminal court proceedings for images and videos found on his
parliamentary laptop in 2013, Germany's international broadcaster
Deutsche Welle reported.
State prosecutors had alleged that his
name was found on a list of around 300 German clients of a Canadian
supplier of child pornography material which was obtained by Germany's
Federal Intelligence Service (BND).
In its ruling on Monday, the
SPD's Hanover tribunal dismissed a federal party application to cancel
Edathy's membership completely, saying that he had not "severely
damaged" the party.
SPD general secretary Yasmin Fahimi on Monday
said the party's federal executive would "carefully examine" the
suspension ruling reached by an internal tribunal of the party.
However, Edathy has announced on his Facebook page that he planned to appeal against the suspension.
The
former lawmaker said he had the impression the decision to suspend his
membership for three years was only meant to "save the SPD's federal
executive from a complete failure".
In Edathy's opinion, this was understandable on the political level, "but I cannot accept it".