© AFP Archivbild
On Monday morning, a Luxembourg City court heard a case involving a physician and a known Covid sceptic arguing the limitations to the freedom of opinion.
Although two cases were initially scheduled to be heard, only one of them ended up being discussed in court, a case involving two doctors versus a Covid sceptic. The central issue of the case revolved around potential limitations to the freedom of opinion. And both factions were convinced to be right.
On 26 October 2021, psychiatrist Dr Jean-Marc Cloos shared a colleague’s opinion piece on the coronavirus vaccinations on social media. Peter Freitag, a now know Covid sceptic, then commented on the post with the words “corona Nazis” and “disciples of Dr Mengele”, among other things.
Freitag was thus put on trial for calumny and defamation. He remains convinced that he only drew comparisons without explicitly targeting anyone. He mainly used his time in court to discuss what he alleges to be the non-efficacy of the Covid vaccines.
François Prüm, the lawyer representing Dr Cloos, argued that everyone is entitled to their opinions, but that this case represented a breach of the limitation to the freedom of opinion. He explained that Freitag’s attacks damaged the reputation of his client and therefore requested that he pay €2,500 to both Cloos and the cited colleague. Furthermore, Freitag should cover the €2,000 costs of the trial.
A verdict in the case is expected on 17 November.
The second case initially scheduled to be discussed on Monday morning involved two plaintiffs putting virologist Dr Claude Muller on trial for inciting hate. However, both individuals decided to abandon the lawsuit two days earlier, which is why it will be difficult to find out which of the physician’s statements were allegedly seen as inciting hate.
Lawyers of Dr Muller are currently considering countersuing for defamation.