Police in the northeastern city of Schwerin said the youths approached the 21-year-old man at the end of August in broad daylight and smeared swastikas and other illegal symbols with a felt-tip pen on his face and back. They also wrote racist and xenophobic slogans on his t-shirt, apparently taking advantage of his mental handicap. A caregiver filed a complaint only a week after the incident.
Local authorities in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have opened a probe on charges of using symbols from groups banned under German law.