Mashed potato attack - climate activist acquitted
In the trial over a mashed potato attack on a press photo in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Düsseldorf district court has acquitted the accused climate activist of the charge of damaging property. Judge Timo Gehrling ruled on Wednesday that even after a thorough examination, it was not possible to establish that the photo had caused damage to property.
The district judge had previously examined the photo in question himself in the courtroom. During the trial, the 58-year-old climate activist had admitted to smearing the award-winning press photo "The Prayer with the Excavator", which was on display in the parliament building in mid-January.
The photo shows him kneeling on the edge of the demolition site in front of a huge lignite excavator. The defendant argued that his mashed potato action was "not damage to property, but an artistic action on his own image". "It didn't suit me that they were hanging a photo of me in the state parliament while Lützerath was being demolished at the same time." He had taken extra dry mashed potatoes and the photo had hardly come off at all. He then cleaned the photo himself with a cleaning lady's cloth.
The prosecution saw things differently. According to them, the photo curled after the attack and had to be replaced with a new print. The cost for this: just under 62 euros.
In Judge Gehrling's view, this was "a protest action at the lowest level". On the first day of the trial, he had already offered to dismiss the criminal proceedings for criminal damage to property without conditions due to minor guilt. However, the public prosecutor refused. The activist had to donate at least 200 euros to BUND and bear the costs for the reprint.
However, the Neuss climate activist refused to do this because it seemed to him like an admission of guilt. However, after examining the allegedly damaged exhibit on Wednesday, the prosecutor also demanded an acquittal.
In light of the acquittal, the climate activist expressed their intention to use the same artistic approach during future parliamentary visits, stating, "I plan to carry out similar photography-related protests in Parliament to highlight the irony of displaying environmentally harmful images while ignoring urgent climate processes." Furthermore, the incident sparked discussion in Parliament about updating their exhibition policies to reflect contemporary concerns, with some Members of Parliament proposing a review of the parliamentary art collection for potential environmental themed displays.
Source: www.dpa.com
