German court: widow not entitled to damages awarded to Kohl

BERLIN (AP) — A German federal court ruled on Monday that the widow of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl isn’t entitled to $1.1 million in damages that the country’s late leader was awarded in a legal battle with his one-time ghostwriter. Kohl was awarded the damages shortly before he died in 2017 by a Cologne court, which found that the ghostwriter had violated his privacy rights. Kohl argued that journalist Heribert Schwan had included comments in his 2014 unauthorized biography “Legacy: The Kohl Records” that the ex-chancellor told him in confidence. The Federal Court of Justice upheld a 2018 ruling and found that widow Maike Kohl-Richter has no claim to the award because such damages can’t be inherited.