Top German court throws out comic’s case over Erdogan poem

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s highest court says it has dismissed a television comedian’s complaint against rulings that prohibited him from repeating parts of a crude poem he wrote about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The German Federal Constitutional Court published the ruling from Jan. 26 on Thursday. The legal battle goes back to 2016 when comic Jan Boehmermann recited the poem on public television to illustrate something he said wouldn’t be allowed even in democratic Germany. The poem described Erdogan as “stupid, cowardly and uptight” before descending into sexual references. Then Chancellor Angela Merkel granted a Turkish request to allow possible prosecution for insulting a foreign head of state. A Hamburg court issued an injunction ordering Boehmermann not to repeat most of the poem.