A West Berlin court has sentenced a 28-year-old coal dealer to 11 months in jail and fined two 17-year-old youths $170 and $115, respectively. They were found guilty of spreading neo-Nazi propaganda in a television broadcast and for displaying Nazi Party symbols. The Nazi Party is illegal in West Berlin.
The three appeared before a West German TV team last March in a Berlin cate where they described themselves as members of the Kampfgruppe Grossdeutschland and demanded the abolition of the bah on the Nazi Party. The trio displayed placards with swastikas and distributed them to the patrons.
The judge sharply criticized the television station which, he said, stood morally accused for televising the three. The mild sentence and low fines were justified, the judge said; because the TV station bears part of the responsibility. The TV station’s reporter was criticized for screening the 90-second scene. The TV station had paid a $140 fee to the trio.
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