Germany allows criminal probe over TV comic's Erdogan satire

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday authorised criminal proceedings sought by Turkey against a German TV comedian over a crude satirical poem about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that has sparked a bitter row over free speech. In a surprise decision that exposed rifts within Merkel's government, she said the German judiciary would now have to decide whether the popular comic, Jan Boehmermann, could be convicted under rarely enforced lese-majeste legislation. "The government will give its authorisation in the case at hand," Merkel told reporters in a hastily arranged statement broadcast live on national television.

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