Green politician Gelbhaar files a criminal complaint because of false allegations

The Green Party politician Stefan Gelbhaar is legally defending himself against alleged fabricated harassment allegations: He has filed a criminal complaint against a current and a former party colleague.

As “Zeit” reported on Wednesday, the complaint is about allegations of defamation, slander and false suspicion of indirect perpetratorship. The newspaper had the advertisement. Gelbhaar has already had success with his legal action against the reporting about him.

When asked, the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office said that no complaint had been filed by Gelbhaar yet. However, a spokesman for the authority explained that he could not rule out that it had already been received and was being processed and was just not recorded in the system yet.

According to “Zeit”, one of the two women named is the former Berlin Green Party district politician Shirin Kreße, who allegedly incriminated Gelbhaar under a false name and with a forged affidavit. She has since left the Greens and the federal party executive committee has also filed a complaint against her. Another woman from the Green Youth is said to have made allegations of “sexualized violence” by Gelbhaar to journalists.

After reports of harassment allegations, the Green Bundestag member Gelbhaar decided not to run for office on the party’s Berlin state list. In a newly scheduled election for direct candidacy in his Pankow constituency in the second week of January, Gelbhaar only came in second place.

After the federal election on February 23rd, he will no longer be represented in parliament.

However, the allegations against him were apparently partly fabricated. Some other women, however, stick to their allegations.

Gelbhaar described the confrontation with the allegations against him as Kafkaesque. “It went in waves. There is this hope that somehow this will pass,” Gelbhaar told the weekly newspaper about the past few weeks.

“The politician has been disintegrated, the person has been deeply shaken. What is still standing is the lawyer,” he continued. The accusations put him in “a Kafkaesque situation.” “I was supposed to defend myself against allegations that I was virtually unaware of.” The pressure is only slowly easing.

“In the eyes of the public, I’m becoming human again,” Gelbhaar told “Zeit.” He is still trying to understand what actually happened.

In the meantime, the RBB reported on the allegations against Gelbhaar based on affidavits from women. The broadcaster had withdrawn its reports about Gelbhaar because of the emerging doubts about the depictions.

The RBB is now no longer allowed to spread the allegations made against Gelbhaar – this was decided by the Hamburg district court with an interim injunction on Monday. At the request of the Green politician, the court banned the distribution of several allegations. This means that “all four core allegations are off the table,” explained Gelbhaar on Tuesday evening.

According to the federal party, the allegations against Gelbhaar have not yet been fully clarified. A separate commission should be set up for this purpose.

Green Chancellor candidate and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck had clear words about the case on Tuesday evening in the ARD program “Maischberger”. “This is a scandalous event, it has to be said so harshly, there was criminal energy at work,” he said. The accused caused Yellowhair and many women affected by harassment “serious harm – and obviously with intent.” Habeck welcomed the fact that the Greens federal executive committee had “taken tough action” against it.

The party’s ad is directed against both Kreße and unknown people, as Green Party leader Felix Banaszak said on Monday. The Green Party leadership also wants to reopen the internal party ombudsman procedure for the case.