Should non-whites play on Germany's soccer team?

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhuanet) -- The leader of Germany's No. 1 far-right party on Tuesday was accused of publishing pamphlets before the 2006 World Cup the questioned whether nonwhite players should be on the nation's soccer team.

Prosecutor Simone Herbeth said in a statement that Udo Voigt, head of the National Democratic Party, or NPD, was charged with incitement and defamation because of the pamphlets. NPD spokesman Klaus Beier and Frank Schwerdt, a leading member, also were charged, Herbeth said.

The pamphlets pictured black defender Patrick Owomoyela's number 25 on a traditional white German jersey. They read: "White, not just a jersey color! For a real NATIONAL team!"

Herbeth said the picture "called into question whether this player, as well as other nonwhite skinned players, were worthy of representing Germany as national players."

Prosecutors charge the party later printed another series of pamphlets showing 10 white and one black player in German national jerseys under the question "German National Team 2010?"

The NPD called the charges "absurd" and "political" in a statement released on its website. "The German justice authorities are ever more zealous when it comes to pursuing and persecuting the national opposition," the statement read.

Owomoyela said in a statement he believed the pamphlet was directed against him and expressed satisfaction that prosecutors had pressed charges.

Backed by the German soccer federation, Owomoyela filed a lawsuit against the NPD in 2006 over the original pamphlets, some 70,000 of which were confiscated by authorities during a search at the party's national headquarters.

(Agencies)