Man avoids jail for saying 'ungrateful' refugees should be chased from Germany with WHIPS
A FATHER-of-two has escaped jail on sedition charges after he apologised in court for saying refugees should be chased out of Germany with whips.
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The man could have been jailed for three months for hate-mongering with the post on his Facebook page last year.
Instead a judge at the District Court in the city of Ulm fined him the equivalent of £2,200.
The defendant, 50, said he lost his temper when he saw how "ungrateful" refugees appeared to be on a TV news bulletin.
A man was fined for inflammatory comments about refugees finding shelter in Germany
He claimed they were demanding better housing saying that their accommodation was inadequate.
The asylum seekers of today seem so ungrateful
He told the court he was a refugee into West Germany from the Communist east as a young man.
"We shared a small room at that time with multiple families and were grateful to have escaped the German Democratic Republic," he said.
The man was upset over refugees 'ungrateful' about the support they receive
He went on to say that he had to fight for work, sick and unemployment pay and fell into the clutches of debt collectors over an unpaid car loan.
He earned €1,500 a month, out of which he has to support his children and wife.
"The photo of these ungrateful refugees made me immeasurably incensed," he told the court.
Tensions have been running high in Germany since the refugee crisis started
"The asylum seekers of today seem so ungrateful.
"But I realise what I did was wrong and inconsiderate and for that I am sorry." Because he had no far-right affiliations and no previous record he was let off with the fine.
The court proceedings were followed by a class of schoolchildren completing a project about how social media can end up in conflict with the law.