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Former leader of German Lutherans fined for drunk driving
Mar 25, 2010, 14:48 GMT
Hanover, Germany - Margot Kaessmann, the former national leader of Germany's Lutheran churches, has accepted a fine and a 10- month ban on driving, prosecutors in Hanover said Thursday.
Kaessmann, who was the second woman appointed a bishop in Germany, swiftly resigned her post as bishop of Hanover and national chairman of the council of Evangelical Churches, the main Lutheran body in Germany, after police caught her driving with a blood-alcohol content well over legal limits.
She agreed to pay one month's salary as a fine under the German system that sets penalties according to a person's income.
Her acceptance of the penalties served on her by the Hanover prosecutor means she will not have to appear in court. Out of court settlements to save judges' time are common in Germany.
A divorced mother of four, Kaessmann, 51, was a frequent guest on TV talk shows before her sudden fall from grace.
Police stopped her February 20 after she ran a red light while driving her work vehicle, a Volkswagen Phaeton sedan. She was taken to a police station where a test revealed a blood alcohol level of 0.15 per cent - more than three times the legal limit.
Soon after she announced she would return to being an ordinary minister of religion and would give up all her high offices.
The liberal bishop had earlier upset the German government with her condemnation of the war in Afghanistan. Germany is home to about 25 million Lutheran Christians.
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