Man stands trial for attempted Merkel attack

A German man will stand trial on Friday in Berlin for an attempted attack on Chancellor Angela Merkel last year.

Published: 7 November 2008 08:24 CET

Man stands trial for attempted Merkel attack

Who'd wanna hurt lil' ol' Angie? Photo: DPA

In November 2007, the man was present at a Berlin school where Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were visiting. According to the Tiergarten district court, the 26-year-old ran towards Merkel with his right hand raised, coming very close to her in a threatening way before security forces were able to subdue him.

During his arrest at the Kreuzberg district school, police discovered he was armed with weapons, ammunition and explosives.

He faces charges of assault, obstruction of police officers and breach of weapons laws.

German police swoop on gang of foreign dating scammers

The Black Axe gang was involved internationally in “multiple areas of criminal activity”, with a focus in Germany on romance scams and money-laundering, Bavarian police said in a statement.

The dating trick was a “modern form of marriage fraud”, police said.

“Using false identities, the fraudsters for example signalled their intention to marry and in the course of further contact repeatedly demand money under various pretexts,” police said.

The money was subsequently transferred to Black Axe in Nigeria “via financial agents”, authorities said.

In the process, the gang used a “commodity-based money laundering” scheme where products, often with a seeming “charitable purpose” were bought and delivered to Nigeria.

Some 450 cases of romance scamming had been reported in the region of Bavaria in 2023 alone, with the damages rising to 5.3 million euros ($5.7 million), police said.

The suspects, who all held Nigerian citizenship and were aged between 29 and 53, were arrested in nationwide raids on Tuesday.

Law enforcement swooped on 19 properties, including both homes and asylum shelters, police said.

The Black Axe gang had “strict hierarchical structures under leadership in Nigeria” operating different territorial units, police said.

The group had a “significant influence” on politics and public administrations, in particular in Nigeria.

Globally, the gang’s main areas of operation were “human-trafficking, fraud, money-laundering, prostitution and drug-trafficking”.

Black Axe operated under the cover of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, an ostensibly charitable organisation used as “camouflage” for the gang’s structures.

The action against Black Axe was the first of its kind in Germany, police said.

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