Sebastian Hotz, a German comedian performing under the stage name “El Hotzo”, has to stand trial for a series of comments he made on social media after the assassination attempt on US President Donald Trump on July 13, 2024.
The attack left two people dead, including the gunman, and injured Trump.
The trial against the 29-year-old former State TV contributor was set to start on July 23 in Berlin, according to a court spokeswoman.
The public prosecutor has accused Hotz of rewarding and condoning criminal offences, which is punishable by up to three years in prison, according to section 140 of the German Criminal Code.
The main question would likely be whether Hotz’ posts fell under the statute of artistic freedom.
Hotz did not comment publicly on the trial and did not respond to a contact request from Brussels Signal.
Shortly after the attempted assassination of Trump, Hotz published a post on X that read: “What do the last bus and Donald Trump have in common? Unfortunately just missed.”
After users reacted negatively to the tasteless joke, Hotz added in a separate post: “I find it absolutely fantastic when fascists die.”
Hotz later deleted the two posts. In a separate post on 14 July he wrote: “Absolutely nobody forces you to have sympathy for fascists, you can just leave it without the slightest consequence.”
His posts sparked heavy criticism. Elon Musk, owner of the X platform and at the time a supporter of Trump, demanded accountability from then-German chancellor Olaf Scholz (Social Democrats).
“Someone wishing death on the leading US Presidential candidate and myself is paid to do so by the German government?” Musk posted on X.
Someone wishing death on the leading US Presidential candidate and myself is paid to do so by the German government?@Bundeskanzler, was ist das? https://t.co/qB6CslUQ2D
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024
The US billionaire referred to a work contract between Hotz and public broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), a State TV station in Berlin. At the time Hotz was the moderator of RBB show Theoretically Cool.
On July 18, 2024, RBB announced it was ending its work with Hotz.
RBB manager Katrin Günther said his statements on X were “not compatible with the values that RBB stands for”.
An RBB spokesperson later added: “We read in the posts the indirect justification of the killing of a person, even the joy over the death of a person. You can dislike Donald Trump politically but in our eyes that is no justification for wishing him a violent death.”
Hotz has a long history of crude insults and left-wing extremist agitational rhetoric, which has included calling policemen “wankers” and “assholes” and giving advice such as: “You can protect yourself from left-wing extremist violence quite simply by not being a Nazi.”
Nevertheless, he received a prize from public German broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk in 2023, with the jury praising his work as: “Socio-critical, analytical, satirical to sarcastic – and always spot on.”
