GERMANY
Deutsche Welle
Amid calls for his resignation over a costly renovation, the Catholic Bishop of Limburg now faces penalties for lying under oath. In a row with the news magazine Der Spiegel, he has denied a first-class trip to India.
A Hamburg prosecutor has requested a penalty order against Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the Catholic Bishop of Limburg, for having submitted two false affidavits to the Regional Court of Hamburg in September 2012.
The bishop made headlines for taking an alleged first-class flight to India, and has been in a legal dispute with leading news magazine Der Spiegel on the issue. Tebartz-van Elst issued a statement under oath denying that he was asked by the Spiegel journalist about the first-class trip, and that he had claimed to have flown business class, forcing Spiegel to print a retraction.
The publication has since said it stands by the story and filed a complaint with public prosecutors in its home city, Hamburg. Both the question and answer were recorded on a mobile-phone video that were published by Spiegel.
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