Germany: Councilor fined for swastikas on Ukrainian cars

A court has ordered a member of the town council in the southwestern city of Baden-Baden to pay a fine after he was found to have scribbled swastikas on two cars with Ukrainian license plates along with the words "F--- UA."

The councilor is being penalized for "using symbols of unconstitutional organizations" and insulting behavior, Baden-Baden state prosecutors said on Monday.

The license plates displayed the ISO country code UA, indicating that the vehicles were from Ukraine.

What else do we know?

The councilor was said to have defaced the cars with a felt pen in January and March of this year in an underground garage in Baden-Baden.

The order for the fine was issued last Thursday and has not yet been enforced. If the councilor does not lodge an objection, the order will come into force on September 8, prosecutors said.

The City of Baden-Baden council is still considering the consequences of the incident for the councilor involved. They will not comment until they have made a decision.

No information was forthcoming on which party the councilor belongs to.

One "reason" given by the Kremlin for its illegitimate and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is the desire to "de-Nazify" the country, although no party that holds any ideology resembling that of Germany's former National Socialist party is in power in Kyiv.

 tj/lo (dpa, AFP)

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