German prosecutors have dropped a controversial case against a comedian accused of criminally “insulting” the Turkish President with a satirical poem.

Jan Böhmermann’s expletive-filled work, aired on German television earlier this year, sparked a diplomatic row between Ankara and Berlin with allusions to bestiality, child sex abuse and ethnic discrimination.

It described Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “stupid, cowardly and uptight” before descending into sexual references and language later described by judges in Hamburg as “abusive and libellous content”.

Introducing it on television, Mr Böhmermann said he was conducting an experiment to illustrate the boundary between legitimate criticism and illegal abusive criticism (Schmähkritik) under German law.

But Angela Merkel controversially granted a request from the Turkish government to open an investigation into whether the satirist had broken a little-used section of Germany’s criminal code, which bans insulting the representatives of international governments.

On Tuesday, the public prosecutor in Mainz said that an investigation had found “no sufficient evidence” of offences committed either by Mr Böhmermann or others involved in the poem’s creation or broadcast.

A statement said the context in which it was delivered made clear the claims were “exaggerated and absurd”, and not meant to be taken as serious allegations against Mr Erdogan.

Prosecutors said it was therefore was “questionable” whether the poem constituted slander, given its satirical nature, and that the “from the lack of earnestness or any seriously intended connection to the personal dignity of (Mr Erdogan), it was meant to be immediately clear to every listener that it was a joke”.

It originally aired on the Neo Magazin Royale programme on 31 March as a response to another satirical German song (“Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan”) that provoked outrage from Turkey earlier in the month.

The ensuing political furore became known as the Böhmermann Affair, seeing the Chancellor heavily criticised for allowing the criminal case to be opened as human rights groups voiced their indignation.

Broadcasters at ZDF television withdrew the passage with the poem from its archives but argued that it did not break the law, while a Hamburg court granted a temporary injunction banning “abusive” parts of the work being repeated.

But the poem was read out in full by a German MP during a parliamentary debate and politicians around the world rallied to Mr Böhmermann’s cause.

Among them was Boris Johnson, now the Foreign Secretary, who won a competition for an offensive poem about Mr Erdogan by penning a limerick calling the Turkish President a “wankerer”.

It is an offence to insult the Turkish nation or the national flag but the case was believed to be the only in recent times where such offences had been formally investigated abroad.

Mr Erdogan is known for his sensitivity to criticism, with prosecutors opening more than 1,800 cases against people for alleged insults since he took office in 2014. </s> BERLIN — German prosecutors say they have dropped an investigation of a TV comic who wrote a crude poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, citing insufficient evidence that he committed any crime.

In April, the German government granted a Turkish request to allow the possible prosecution of Jan Boehmermann for insulting a foreign head of state. German law required the government to grant permission before prosecutors could consider whether to press charges.

Boehmermann had read the poem on ZDF television to illustrate what he said wouldn't be allowed in Germany, contrasting it with another channel's earlier satirical song that also poked fun at Erdogan and angered Turkey.

Prosecutors in Mainz, where ZDF is based, said in a statement Tuesday that "criminal actions could not be proven with the necessary certainty." </s> A court in Hamburg ruled Tuesday that selected passages from German satirist Jan Böhmermann's poem lampooning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would remain barred from re-publication.

The ruling by the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court upheld a lower court's decision from February 2017.

The continuation of the partial ban was a defeat for both Erdogan, who had demanded the entire poem be censored, and for Böhmermann, who had called for the partial banned to be lifted.

Read more: German comedian Jan Böhmermann celebrates debut on US late night TV

Böhmermann had broadcast the poem on his late-night television show in March 2016. Much of the text criticized the Turkish president for his authoritarian political positions, but some sections also contained expletives and graphic sexual references, such as bestiality and child pornography.

Erdogan had accused Böhmermann of defamation while the satirist had defended the statements in his 2016 poem as permissible under artistic freedom.

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The higher court said that the politically critical sections of the poem could freely circulate because they pertained to Erdogan's factual behavior. However, the graphic and explicit sections would continue to be banned because they lacked a factual point of reference and were a libelous "attack" on Erdogan's "personal dignity."

Judge Andreas Buske also expressed doubt that Böhmermann's poem fell under the constitutional classification of art and was therefore subject to corresponding protections.

"Satire can be art, but it does not have to be," Buske said in the judgement. "If satire is not art, then it falls under the protection afforded by freedom of speech."

The ruling is not yet final. Both parties can appeal the ruling to the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany's highest criminal court.

The poem's publication in 2016 fed tense diplomatic relations between Germany and Turkey at the time.

It even drew in Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had apologized to Erdogan for Böhmermann's actions.

Erdogan had previously tried and failed to sue Böhmermann in a separate legal action that made use of an obscure German law prohibiting foreign heads of state from being insulted. The law was revoked in June 2016. </s> German prosecutors on Tuesday dropped an investigation of a TV comic who wrote a crude poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, citing insufficient evidence that he committed any crime.

Chancellor Angela Merkel in April granted a Turkish request to allow the possible prosecution of Jan Boehmermann for insulting a foreign head of state. German law required the government to give permission before prosecutors could consider whether to press charges.

Boehmermann had read the poem on ZDF television, to illustrate something he said wouldn't be allowed in Germany. He contrasted it with another channel's earlier satirical song that also poked fun at Erdogan and angered Turkey but was considered acceptable in Germany.

Boehmermann's ditty started by describing the Turkish leader as "stupid, cowardly and uptight" before descending into crude sexual references. ZDF withdrew the passage with the poem from its archives but argued that it didn't break the law.

Prosecutors in Mainz, where ZDF is based, said in a statement Tuesday that "criminal actions could not be proven with the necessary certainty."

They said it was "questionable" whether the poem constituted slander, given the satirical context in which Boehmermann recited it and the fact that it wasn't intended to convey his own view of "personal traits of the Turkish president."

Boehmermann, they said, maintained that he had sought to exaggerate to the extent that "the lack of earnestness and the lack of any seriously intended connection to the personal honor of (Erdogan) were supposed to be immediately evident to every listener."

Prosecutors said they also found no evidence of criminal behavior on the part of other people involved in Boehmermann's program.

The decision to allow Boehmermann's possible prosecution was awkward for Merkel as she sought Ankara's help in reducing Europe's migrant influx but also expressed concern about the state of media freedom in Turkey.

As she announced the decision in April, she underlined the independence of the judiciary and said her government intends to repeal Germany's law criminalizing insults of a foreign head of state, effective in 2018.

In a separate civil case, a Hamburg court in May granted an injunction ordering Boehmermann not to repeat most of the offending poem. A full hearing on that case is due in November.
German prosecutors drop a case against comedian Jan Böhmermann, who had been indicted for a satirical poem about Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.