Cologne, 6 February 2024 (dpa/MIA) – The German-Turkish writer Akif Pirinçci was sentenced to nine months in prison without probation for incitement to hatred in the Bonn district court on Monday.

The 64-year-old had made hostile remarks about immigrants in a blog entry. His lawyer Mustafa Kaplan told dpa that he had already lodged an appeal against the sentencing, which is not yet final.

This is not Pirinçci's first conviction for incitement to hatred. He maintains that his statements are covered by the right to freedom of expression.

Pirinçci, born in Istanbul in 1959, moved to Germany with his family in 1969 and grew up in the Eifel region, close to the former capital Bonn.

From 1989 onwards, he made a name for himself with the "Felidae" series of crime novels in which cats played the leading role. The novels sold millions of copies, were translated into many languages and made into films.

In the past 10 years, however, Pirinçci has mainly attracted attention for his right-wing populist and Islamophobic statements.

In 2014, he published his first non-fiction book, "Deutschland von Sinnen: Der irre Kult um Frauen, Homosexuelle und Zuwanderer" which translates into English as "Germany Gone Mad: The Crazy Cult around Women, Homosexuals and Immigrants."

The following year, he remarked to anti-foreigner Pegida demonstrators in Dresden that "the concentration camps are unfortunately out of service."

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