A regional court in Frankfurt, Germany, dismissed Palestinian photojournalist Anas Zayed Fteiha’s legal action against German media giant Axel Springer, deeming the claim as inadmissible.

Fteiha, supported by the European Legal Support Center, accused the publisher in court of violating his constitutional rights by falsely depicting him as a Hamas propagandist in BILD, Germany’s largest tabloid.

The court dismissed the motion on formal grounds, ruling that Fteiha’s lawyer, Ingrid Yeboah, failed to submit a valid power of attorney in its original form — a document signed by Fteiha — or in an electronically certified version, a requirement under procedural codes.

The judges acknowledged that obtaining an original document by Fteiha from Gaza posed an exceptional challenge. They found, however, that these circumstances did not justify waiving procedural requirements and that Yeboah had not sufficiently demonstrated the impossibility of submitting the original form.

“The applicant is in a war zone with closed borders and no functioning infrastructure.”

The court also noted inconsistencies in the materials submitted as substitutes, including photos that showed different-looking signatures and variations in transliterations of Fteiha’s family name. Videos and scans showing Fteiha in Gaza signing the documents, the judges said, did not convincingly prove authorization.

A spokesperson for BILD said the paper stood by the story in question.

“The Frankfurt Regional Court’s decision is clear and leaves nothing to add,” BILD’s spokesperson Christian Senft told The Intercept. “Beyond that, our portrayal constitutes a permissible expression of opinion and cannot be prohibited.”

Procedural hurdles complicated the case from the start. German law........

© The Intercept