Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s lawyer said on Saturday he had filed a complaint in a bid to get a satirical poem mocking his client banned in its entirety after a court issued a preliminary ruling in May banning re-publication of parts.
Comedian Jan Boehmermann recited a poem on television in March suggesting Erdogan engaged in bestiality and watched child pornography.
Lawyer Michael-Hubertus von Sprenger said he had filed the complaint to a court in Hamburg and wanted to get a full injunction to replace the preliminary one as well as get sections that the court did not ban in May prohibited.
Separately, in the western city of Mainz, preliminary proceedings against Boehmermann are underway as he is suspected of insulting a foreign leader.
The German government had given prosecutors the green light to pursue the case against Boehmermann – a move which brought Merkel strong criticism.
German-Turkish ties have been strained – both by the case and by Turkey’s outrage over a resolution passed by Germany’s parliament declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces to be genocide.
That comes at a time when Germany is banking on Turkey’s help in stopping the flow of illegal migrants.
