Corona sinners are asked to pay more and more frequently in Germany. The federal states have issued comprehensive catalogs of fines for this. Under certain circumstances, violations can also be punished as a criminal offense, the Infection Protection Act provides in this country fines of up to 25,000 euros – and imprisonment of up to two years. If someone becomes infected through the wrongdoing, imprisonment for up to five years is possible. As a rule, however, violations of non-contact bans are punished as an administrative offense.
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In other countries, on the other hand, in times of the pandemic, the penalties are much harsher, even for minor rule violations. From Asia in particular there are some strange, individual cases to report. An (incomplete) overview:
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In Indonesia Corona violations are sometimes punished with physical exercise. Humiliating gymnastics such as push-ups under the supervision of the police in public are intended to make people comply with the mask requirement. And the world’s largest island nation knows other variants of “public shaming” to enforce the rules: public singing of the national anthem, for example, the forced participation in funerals of Covid 19 victims (as happened in Tuban on Java) and the cleaning of public spaces in a bright orange vest with the inscription “Violator of the health protocol”.
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In Austria are already up to three years imprisonment for the negligent endangerment of people by communicable diseases. Six months probation and a fine of 800 euros was given to an infected 49-year-old from Klagenfurt because she left her house. The woman said she only broke the quarantine because she had to transfer money for her sick granddaughter in Bosnia. A German living in Tyrol has to pay 10,800 euros because she went shopping and took a taxi despite the infection and quarantine. The prosecutors want at least a suspended sentence for her too and have appealed.
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In the West African Ghana Citizens threaten between four and ten years in prison or a fine of up to 60,000 cedi (8800 euros) if they are caught without a mouth and nose covering. President Nana Akufo-Addo passed a law to this effect in June.
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In Great Britain The government recently increased the fines for corona violations: Anyone who repeatedly violates the obligation to wear a face covering in shops or other enclosed spaces must now pay up to 3200 pounds (around 3500 euros) – twice as much as before. Organizers of illegal parties have to expect fines of up to 11,000 euros.
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In Thailand On the island of Koh Chang, a Swiss citizen and his native wife were sentenced to two months in prison because they had eaten soup in front of their house in April and probably forgot the time. When the police arrived it was 10:20 p.m. The problem: There was a curfew from 10 p.m., which has since been lifted. The two are on bail and appealed – but the possible time in prison hangs over them like the sword of Damocles. “This is a rather complicated time for us,” wrote the Valaisan, who has lived in Thailand for ten years, on Facebook. Apparently no decision has yet been made in the appeal process.
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In Malaysia a restaurant owner has to be behind bars for five months. The man should have been in self-isolation due to corona symptoms, but still had his restaurant open. “As a result, several villages in the states of Kedah and Perlis had to be put under lockdown,” said the angry minister for national security, Ismail Sabri Yaakob. At least 40 cases of infection have been confirmed in connection with the quarantine violation.
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In Singapore a 40-year-old had to go to prison. His offense: The taxi driver wrote in a Facebook group in April that because of the lockdown, shops would close and supermarkets would only open two days a week. Although he deleted the post after 15 minutes, he had caused people to panic buying, a court found. The result: four months in prison for disseminating false information.
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In If The police used batons against maskless passers-by, street vendors and rickshaw drivers at the beginning of the pandemic. Other rule breakers had to do squats or were frightened by officers with helmets in the form of the corona virus. Tourists had to write 500 times because of an unauthorized walk: “I did not adhere to the curfew and I am very sorry.”
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