European court rejects German’s complaint over conviction for Himmler post
Human rights court says blogger failed to distance himself from Nazi ideology in pro-migrant post
BERLIN — The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a German man’s complaint against his conviction for posting a picture on his blog of Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler wearing a swastika armband.
A Munich court in 2015 convicted Hans Burkhard Nix of using symbols of unconstitutional organizations, which include Nazi paraphernalia. The Strasbourg-based European court said Thursday Nix complained that German judges had failed to take into account the fact that his post was meant as a protest over officials’ alleged discrimination against children with migrant roots.
German courts found that Nix had used the picture as an eye-catching device without clearly distancing himself from Nazi ideology in the post.
The ECHR said they had “provided relevant and sufficient reasons for interfering with [his] right to freedom of expression.”