Becker's son wins damages over tweet on far-right MP's account: report

A MP of German far-right party AfD has been ordered to pay damages to the son of tennis star Boris Becker over a racist slur posted on the lawmaker's Twitter account, Spiegel Online reported Tuesday. A tweet sent from the account of Jens Maier, a former judge, had attacked Noah Becker for reportedly complaining about being seen as the "eternal son" of his famous father. "It seems the little half-negro simply got too little attention," read the tweet posted about a year ago. Maier claims he did not write the tweet, saying one of his staff had posted it. But Becker's lawyer Christian-Oliver Moser told the magazine he was glad the court did not accept Maier's defence. "I am particularly pleased that the accused was unsuccessful with his argument that he did not himself write the tweet," said Moser. A spokesman for Berlin's courts told Spiegel that 15,000 euros (US$17,000) in compensation has been awarded to Becker. Maier has also been ordered to pay lawyers' fees. AfD deputies have repeatedly come under fire over controversial comments. German police last year filed a complaint against senior party member Beatrix von Storch over a New Year's Eve tweet which they say violated laws against incitement to hate. Von Storch had criticised Cologne police for sending a New Year's greeting in Arabic on Twitter, asking if authorities had meant "to placate the barbaric, Muslim, gang-raping hordes of men?" On Tuesday, Germany's domestic intelligence agency said it will step up monitoring for political extremism in the AfD, a blow to the party in a busy election year. Railing against a record influx of asylum seekers to Germany since 2015, the AfD won 13 percent of the vote in 2017 national elections, becoming the biggest opposition party in the Bundestag.