BERLIN: A 33-year-old German man was on Thursday handed a suspended sentence of eight months by a court in the eastern city of Chemnitz for making the illegal Hitler salute during far-right protests.
The Chemnitz local, who was not named, was also fined 2,000 euros ($2,300) over his action on September 1. The penalty was more lenient than the one-year prison sentence sought by prosecutors, who are examining whether to lodge an appeal.
Thousands of demonstrators had answered a call by the far-right party AfD and the Islamophobic PEGIDA street movement to march over the fatal stabbing of a man, allegedly by asylum seekers, in late August. During the heated rallies, a handful of people were seen publicly making the illegal salute, while others were shouting anti-foreigner slurs.