German law causes Angela Merkel a 'diplomatic headache'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under pressure to give her decision on whether the German state prosecutor should start proceedings against TV presenter Jan Böhmermann.

This was supposed to happen after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded that the comedian be prosecuted for defamation in a "poem of discredit".

But this is not the essence of the matter, namely the problem.

The problem is that a strange law allows the president of Turkey to do this, Telegraph reports.

It is about paragraph 103 of the Criminal Code of Germany, related to insults against bodies or representatives of foreign states.

As foreign media have written, this paragraph is used very rarely, even many experienced lawyers have never heard of it until this week.

"Article 103 has existed, but it has rarely been used," said Holger Heinen, a lawyer who completed his doctorate on the subject.

The implementation of such also requires a notification from the injured party and an authorization from the German government. The first one already exists since Erdogan has already presented it in person. Meanwhile, the second remains in the hands of Merkel.

Erdogan has submitted a complaint against the comedian Jan Boehmermann, who during the broadcast portrayed the Turkish president as a "professional idiot" and suggested that he had committed sexual acts with animals. /Telegraph/