Most recently, Michael Wendler had attracted attention more through crude conspiracy narratives than as a singer. Now a district court has issued an arrest warrant for not appearing at a trial.
Dinslaken – Because the controversial pop singer Michael Wendler did not appear as a defendant in a trial, a district court now wants him to be brought to trial with an arrest warrant.
The court in Dinslaken on the Lower Rhine issued a so-called arrest warrant on Tuesday, which is valid until Wendler (“It doesn’t matter”, “She loves the DJ”) complies with his summons in court. According to a spokesman, he was duly invited to the court dates that were postponed several times and is now absent without excuse, according to the court. The German authorities would now try to arrest Wendler. However, it is unclear whether such an arrest warrant will even be carried out in the USA, where Wendler lives, said the spokesman.
The public prosecutor’s office accuses the 49-year-old of having assisted in thwarting the foreclosure. Because of this, a penalty order had been issued, against which Wendler, however, lodged an objection. Therefore, the process started on Tuesday.
Wendler is said to have been overwritten – according to the charge in the penalty order – author’s shares in more than 150 music titles in order to protect the assets of the original rights holder from enforcement. With the same intention, the original rights holder is also said to have transferred the word mark “Michael Wendler” to him. According to the court, the penalty order amounts to six months imprisonment on probation. As a probation condition, 100,000 euros are provided to the state treasury. His lawyer did not comment on the allegations when asked. The presumption of innocence applies until a conviction.
On the eve of the trial, Wendler’s defense lawyer had requested, according to the court, that his mandate be relieved of the obligation to come to Dinslaken in person. However, the court did not comply. The public prosecutor then applied for an arrest warrant. She was convinced that he had fled to the United States to avoid trial; he should therefore be in custody.
The judge did not go that far on Tuesday: It was not evident that Wendler’s stay in the USA was an escape from justice. His appearance in court in the process is appropriate. Therefore, he should be kept in custody until he appears in court.
The pop singer caused a scandal in October 2020 because he accused the federal government of “gross and serious violations of the constitution” in the Corona crisis. In addition, he accused television stations – including his local broadcaster RTL at the time – of being “synchronized”. RTL immediately distanced itself and called Wendler a conspiracy theorist.
In the past few months, the former “king of pop hits” hadn’t played a major role on television or on the stage. Instagram blocked his channel “because he repeatedly” violated guidelines. After the outbreak of the Corona crisis, terms such as “fake pandemic” and “media censorship” could be read on the account.
In addition, Wendler had chosen Instagram as a forum to defend scandalous statements that he had posted on Telegram – another network. The service is considered a haven for people spreading conspiracy tales. Wendler had referred to Germany as a “concentration camp” there because of the anti-corona measures. Allegedly, “KZ” was an abbreviation for “Crisis Center”, he later claimed. In the general public, however, the letters had been understood as a synonym for “concentration camp”. dpa
