German Far-Right Politician Convicted Over CDs

A German court has given a senior member of the country's main far-right party a suspended eight-month prison sentence for selling CDs whose content glorified Nazism and incited violence.

The Berlin municipal court convicted Sebastian Schmidtke, the head of the National Democratic Party's Berlin branch, of offenses including incitement and displaying the symbols of anti-constitutional organizations - a charge that covers banned Nazi paraphernalia.

The court on Wednesday found that a shop owned by Schmidtke sold music CDs with lyrics that stirred hatred against Jews, foreigners and gays and called for violence, and used banned slogans glorifying Nazism. It says Schmidtke, who can appeal the ruling, denied selling CDs in his shop.

Germany's 16 state governments this week launched a drive to have the country's highest court ban Schmidtke's party.