A German court has ruled that a group of Islamists did
not break the law in forming "sharia police" street patrols and
telling people to stop drinking, gambling and listening to music.
The ultra-conservative Muslim group around German Salafist
convert Sven Lau sparked public outrage with their vigilante patrols in the
western city of Wuppertal in 2014, but prosecutors have struggled to build a
case against them.
The city's district court ruled that the seven accused
members of the group did not breach a ban on political uniforms when they
approached people while wearing orange vests bearing the words "Sharia Police".
Judges said there could only be a violation of the law -
originally aimed against street movements such as the early Nazi party - if the
uniforms were "suggestively militant or intimidating", a court
spokesman said.
In this case, they found that the vests were not threatening
and noted that one witness said he thought the men were part of a bachelor
party.
The same court had already thrown out the case last year,
but was overruled on appeal by a higher court which agreed with prosecutors
that the ban on uniforms could be applied in this case.
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