Deploy fails on a node with "invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII" in a puppet manifest file

I am using leap cli (at develop) with leap platform (at develop) to deploy to clientdev environment of bitmask provider (at master):

drebs@ppto:~/dev/leap/repos/bitmask (master) $ git rev-parse HEAD
3edf2dc6ee6e7cfae92d3a7469b700407c773487
drebs@ppto:~/dev/leap/repos/bitmask (master) $ leap --version
leap 1.9, ruby 2.1.5
 = leap command v1.9 (/home/drebs/.gem/ruby/2.1.0/gems/leap_cli-1.9)
 = leap platform v0.9 (develop cc120b5e899553ef34cfce0882586c13505e11aa)

Deploy fails for one of the nodes (gecko) with an "Invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII" error:

drebs@ppto:~/dev/leap/repos/bitmask (master) $ leap deploy gecko
 = warning: the commercial certificate 'files/cert/cdev.bitmask.net.crt' will expire soon (2016-10-02 00:00:00 UTC). You should renew it with `leap cert csr --domain cdev.bitmask.net`.
 = checking nodes
   - [gecko.cdev.bitmask.net] ok
 = synching configuration files
   - hiera/gecko.yaml -> gecko:/etc/leap/hiera.yaml
   - files/puppet/, files/puppet/modules/ -> gecko:/srv/leap/files
 = synching puppet manifests
   - /home/drebs/dev/leap/repos/leap_platform/[bin,tests,puppet] -> gecko.cdev.bitmask.net:/srv/leap
 = applying puppet
   - [gecko.cdev.bitmask.net] STARTING APPLY {user: drebs, platform: 0.9 (develop cc120), leap_cli: 1.9}
   - [gecko.cdev.bitmask.net] Notice: Scope(Class[main]): Services for gecko.cdev.bitmask.net: couchdb, soledad
   - [gecko.cdev.bitmask.net] Error: invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII at /srv/leap/puppet/modules/git/manifests/init.pp:1 on node gecko.cdev.bitmask.net
Wrapped exception:
invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII
Error: invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII at /srv/leap/puppet/modules/git/manifests/init.pp:1 on node gecko.cdev.bitmask.net
   - [gecko.cdev.bitmask.net] APPLY COMPLETE (failed) {user: drebs, platform: 0.9 (develop cc120), leap_cli: 1.9}
   - [gecko.cdev.bitmask.net] completed in 8.315s.

Despite the error saying that the problem is in line 1 of that file, i think that the problem might actually have to do with the author's name in the comment.

root@gecko:/srv/leap/puppet# head /srv/leap/puppet/modules/git/manifests/init.pp
#
# git module
#
# Copyright 2008, Puzzle ITC
# Marcel Härry haerry+puppet(at)puzzle.ch
# Simon Josi josi+puppet(at)puzzle.ch
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute 
# it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU 
# General Public License version 3 as published by 

I have had this problem before in other puppet scenarios, and worked around by changing the person's name from Härry to Harry. Not sure if this is the problem here because I couldn't find a way to deploy with a modified puppet manifest.

(from redmine: created on 2016-08-16, closed on 2016-08-23)