New Trial in Germany over web site [CNN]

[Jim Choate]

Forwarded message:

>                       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.