As the Leipzig Regional Court announced, Gil Ofarim has not yet commented on the allegations made against him by the public prosecutor. A deadline for this expired on Monday. If the musician wants to, he can still explain himself to the court. The spokeswoman for the court said: “He can continue to get involved in the allegations. From now on, however, the court could announce at any time whether the prosecution would allow it.”
Gil Ofarim published an Instagram video about six months ago in which he accused the Leipzig hotel “The Westin” of anti-Semitism. He was asked in the hotel lobby to hide his Star of David in order to be able to check in. After the images from the surveillance cameras were evaluated and the witnesses questioned, there were serious doubts about the musician’s portrayal. No necklace can be seen in the surveillance camera images.
Nevertheless, the hotel was initially exposed to a huge shitstorm due to the Instagram video, which has been viewed more than four million times so far. The hotel manager of the “Westin” recently made accusations against the media in the NDR program “Zapp”. They would not have questioned the musician’s statements sufficiently, but instead reported blindly, and thus also contributed to an enormous shitstorm against the hotel.
The case of Gil Ofarim: So it goes on now
The Leipzig Regional Court will decide how the case will continue. The competent chamber could allow the complaint in its entirety, only with changes, or not at all. Another option would be for her to move the case to the district court, where the sentencing case would actually belong. Due to the social relevance of the case and the great public interest, the public prosecutor’s office decided to bring an action before the regional court. When the court decides on the indictment also depends on the workload of the court and ongoing proceedings. So it might take a while.