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CRIME

Suspects in Passau police chief stabbing released

Two suspects arrested after this weekend’s attempted murder of Passau police Chief Alois Mannichl have been released, according to senior public prosecutor Helmut Walch on Monday afternoon.

Suspects in Passau police chief stabbing released
Photo: DPA

Both men were able to provide convincing alibis and did not match DNA traces left at the scene of the crime, Walch said. Mannichl also did not recognize photos of the 26 and 27-year-old suspects.

Police now have no concrete leads in the case that has Bavarian authorities looking in far-right neo-Nazi groups for suspects.

The two suspects were arrested not far from 52-year-old Mannichl’s home near Passau, where he was found slumped on his porch with stab wounds to his abdomen. Walch did not reveal the time of the arrest or the ages of the suspects due to “investigative reasons.”

Local newspaper Am Sonntag reported Mannichl answered his front door on Saturday to a tall skinhead at around 5:30 pm on Saturday. The man said something along the lines of “Greetings from the national resistance,” and said, “You leftist pig cop, you won’t trample on the graves of our comrades any more,” before stabbing Mannichl in the stomach with a 12-centimetre knife.

He then threw the knife away in the garden and ran to a waiting car in the nearby street and was driven away.

Senior public prosecutor Walch said Monday afternoon that the knife used in the attack belonged to Mannichl, who had apparently used it earlier to cut Lebkuchen Christmas sweets at a neighbour’s party. He left the knife in his garden afterwards. Walch said police were not ruling out a premeditated crime, though.

Mannichl was seriously wounded, but declared out of danger after an operation.

Far-right resentment in the region against the police reached a high point this July after the authorities ordered that the grave of a former neo-Nazi functionary be opened so that a Nazi flag that had been buried with the coffin, be removed.

The local far-right extremist NPD party had accused the police chief of making the group feel harassed on November 16 as they marked the defeat of Nazi Germany at the end of World War II.

Bavarian State Premier Horst Seehofer said on Sunday evening that this “new dimension” of right-wing extremist violence required a “new and very clear and hard answer from the state,” adding that the Bavarian cabinet would on Tuesday discuss the possibility of banning the NPD party.

BUSINESS

Elon Musk visits Tesla’s sabotage-hit German factory

Elon Musk travelled Wednesday to Tesla's factory near Berlin to lend his workers "support" after the plant was forced to halt production by a suspected arson attack on nearby power lines.

Elon Musk visits Tesla's sabotage-hit German factory

The Tesla CEO addressed thousands of employees on arrival at the site, accusing “eco-terrorists” of the sabotage as he defended his company’s green credentials.

With his son X AE A-XII in his arms, Musk said: “I am here to support you.”

The billionaire’s visit came a week after power lines supplying the electric carmaker’s only European plant were set on fire in an act of sabotage claimed by a far-left group called the Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group).

READ ALSO: Far-left group claims ‘sabotage’ on Tesla’s German factory

Musk had said then that the attack was “extremely dumb”, while the company said it would cost it several hundred million euros.

A week on, the lights have come back on at the site, but Andre Thierig, who heads the site, said on LinkedIn that it would “take a bit of time” before production is back to full speed.

Industry experts have warned that the reputational impact caused by the sabotage on the region could be more severe than the losses suffered by Tesla.

Tesla’s German plant started production in 2022 following an arduous two-year approval and construction process dogged by administrative and legal obstacles.

Tesla wants to expand the site by 170 hectares and boost production up to one million vehicles annually to feed Europe’s growing demand for electric cars and take on rivals who are shifting away from combustion engine vehicles.

But the plans have annoyed local residents, who voted against the project in a non-binding ballot last month.

After the vote, Tesla said it might have to rethink the plans. Environmental activists opposed to the expansion of the factory have recently also set up a camp in a wooded area near the plant.

READ ALSO: Why is Tesla’s expansion near Berlin so controversial?

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