A video circulating on social media showing a police operation in which posters with images of Israeli hostages were removed in Berlin has sparked outrage. The clip shows police officers removing posters from an advertising column. On them were pictures of people who had been abducted from Israel by the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas.
According to the police, the video shows an operation last Thursday in Berlin-Friedrichshain. "Due to the suspicion of unjustified posters, our colleagues removed it from the advertising column," the authority wrote on X. An assessment by the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office is still pending.
Violation of the Press Act?
The police told the »B.Z.« that the crew of a patrol car had noticed several posters »which did not have an imprint in the sense of the press law«. Preliminary proceedings had been initiated on suspicion of a violation of the Press Act and suspicion of damage to property.
The Attorney General's Office has not yet commented on the case. The authority has so far left an inquiry by SPIEGEL unanswered.
Berlin's police chief Barbara Slowik expressed her regret over the incident. She could "absolutely understand that the removal of the posters hurt the feelings, especially of relatives and friends of the hostages as well as the people of the Israeli/Jewish community," Slowik said on Tuesday evening on X. This saddens me and I deeply regret it." Quite independently of this, the legal assessment of posters is still pending.
bbr/dpa