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SEX

German singer suspected of 300 counts of child sex abuse

German New Age singer Oliver Shanti, wanted on suspicion of more than 300 counts of child sexual abuse, has been flown to Germany for remand after his arrest in Portugal last week, prosecutors in Munich said on Monday.

Published: 7 July 2008 17:57 CEST

Police said the 59-year-old, whose given name is Ulrich Schulz, was taken to the hospital for unspecified health issues after his arrival, though he appeared to be in relatively good health, chief detective Ignaz Raab said.

“The accused was emotionally agitated,” Raab said. Investigators have said Shanti has chosen to remain silent regarding the criminal accusations.

“Police are looking for other victims,” said state prosecutor’s office spokesperson Anton Winkler in Munich. “The prosecutor’s office wants to press charges quickly.”

The Hamburg-born singer, who has been wanted since 2002, was arrested after being recognized at the German Embassy in Lisbon when he applied for a passport, which authorities believe he may have wanted to use to flee to Brazil, news agency AFP reported.

The authorities are not clear on how Shanti could have remained undetected in Portugal for so long. He was considered to be a model citizen of his village, Vila Nova de Cerveira.

CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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