A German court on Friday upheld a fine imposed on the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) for failing to declare part of its income. The party is on the verge of financial ruin because of earlier fines. The federal parliament had imposed the 33,000-euro (43,400 dollar) fine on the party for false accounting practices between 2004 and 2007.
The NPD had failed to declare 16,603 euros of income from two constituencies. In 2009, the same court ordered the NPD to pay 1.27 million euros for filing erroneous tax returns in 2007 - halving the original penalty imposed by parliament. In a separate court ruling, parliament in the state of Saxony received legal backing on Friday for its temporary expulsion of NPD leader Holger Apfel for anti-Semitic comments earlier this year.
In June, Apfel was excluded from parliament for 10 days after calling Israel a 'rogue state,' amongst other things. He had refused to leave until police officers escorted him from the building.
DPA
