Three German politicians convicted of racial hatred

BERLIN, April 27 (UPI) -- A Berlin court has handed suspended prison sentences to three top officials of Germany's neo-Nazi party NPD for the defamation of a black soccer player.

National Democratic Party head Udo Voigt, legal expert Frank Schwerdt and party spokesman Klaus Beier were convicted of inciting racial hatred and defamation.

Voigt and Beier got seven-month suspended sentences, with Schwerdt receiving a 10-month suspended sentence, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reports.

In 2006 the NPD printed a flier portraying the back of a man in a jersey of the German national soccer team, with the No. 25 -- at the time that of defender Patrick Owomoyela, a black German born to a German mother and a Nigerian father. The line below the picture read, "White -- not just the color of a jersey. For a real national team."

The pamphlet was handed out to people in the summer of 2006, shortly before Germany hosted the FIFA World Cup soccer championship.

Presiding Judge Monika Pelcz argued the flier could have led to racist violence against foreigners or black Germans -- or at least incited people to discriminate against them.

"You are denying a man the right to be (a) German national team player because of his skin color," Pelcz said. The image clearly "demeaned, defamed and insulted" Owomoyela.

"If that image is not racially insulting, then I don't know what is," she added.

The defendants, calling the verdict "absurd," have vowed to appeal it.

It comes as the NPD, Germany's largest far-right party, is facing financial fallout over a government-imposed $2.9 million fine because of tax violations.