A German man may face jail for up to three years over a comment posted on the internet, in which he is accused of degrading the September 11 attacks.

Holger Voss, who posted his remarks on the German message board Telepolis, is accused of "glorification of a criminal act", but insists his comments were supposed to be sarcastic.

The allegedly offensive remarks were made in response to a message posted by another internet user using the name Engine_of_Aggression, who wrote "congratulations to the people, who in this over-critical time, dare to grab evil at its root and eradicate it from the face of the earth!".

Holger Voss answered by writing "Yes, congratulations to the murderers of 11.09.02….Good, that on 11.09 a couple of real men found the courage to show the evil ones, the USA how it really is!".

The prosecutors accuse Voss of accepting the fact that an "impartial" user could "understand the comments as an approval of the terror attacks". Voss, however, insists he is an anti-militarist, saying his comments were only an attempt at showing the hypocrisy in valuing American lives over others.

Use of sarcasm?

In a press release, Voss says he signed the posting with the sentence "whoever finds sarcasm, please use it further" - according to Voss obvious evidence that the posting was meant to be ironic. But the prosecuters may be more criticial. "The court will decide whether he did indeed mean them ironically, and, if so, whether or not that makes any difference," court spokesman Jürgen Wrobel told the BBC.

The case is expected to have major implications for the freedom of speech on the internet. In addition, the issue has also sparked controversy as the prosecutors forced the provider of the discussion board to hand over the details about the accused.