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NEW TRIAL IN GERMANY OVER WEB SITE
graphic October 24, 1997 Web posted at: 8:08 p.m. EDT (0008 GMT)
BERLIN (Reuters) -- A left-wing German politician acquitted in June of supporting guerrilla acts with information linked to her Web site appeared in court again on Friday on new charges emerging from her first trial.
Angela Marquardt, 26, former deputy leader of Germany's reform communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), was this time accused of having illegally published the charge sheet of her first trial.
The latest proceedings were adjourned after a witness failed to appear in court.
"This is a farce," Marquardt told reporters. She said she had only shown the charge sheet to a few friends.
No date was given for the restart of the new trial.
A Berlin court ruled earlier this year that Marquardt could not be held responsible for the contents of an Internet-based magazine showing anti-nuclear activists how to sabotage railway lines, despite it being accessible from her "home page."
Internet users set up home pages as ways of displaying information and communicating with other users. Home page users can use "hyperlinks" to make other pages accessible from their site.
The court ruled that Marquardt had set up a hyperlink to the magazine page before the details on sabotage methods were published and did not have any knowledge of their publication.
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.