A well-known figure in a German far-right party tells his trial he is completely innocent

BERLIN (AP) — One of the best-known figures in the far-right Alternative for Germany party has said at his trial on charges of using a Nazi slogan that he is “completely innocent.” Björn Höcke went on trial at the state court in the eastern city of Halle last week, months before a regional election in the state of Thuringia in which he plans to run for the governor’s job. Höcke is accused of ending a speech in 2021 with the words “Everything for Germany!” Prosecutors contend he was aware of the origin of the phrase as a slogan of the Nazis’ SA stormtroopers, but Höcke has argued that it is an “everyday saying.”