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CRIME

Trump insists crime is rising in Germany, questioning official data

US President Donald Trump doubled down on Tuesday on the false assertion that immigration is driving up crime in Germany, casting doubt on the country's official statistics.

Trump insists crime is rising in Germany, questioning official data
Donald Trump speaking in Washington on Monday. Photo: DPA

“Crime in Germany is up 10% plus (officials do not want to report these crimes) since migrants were accepted,” Trump tweeted, a day after he claimed German people were “turning against their leadership” over immigration.

“Be smart America!” said the president, who is under mounting pressure to end the separation of immigrant families on the southern US border.

While several high-profile crimes by migrants have fuelled public anger in Germany, which has admitted more than one million asylum seekers since 2015, the country's crime rate is at its lowest since 1992, according to official figures released last month.

Data from the German interior ministry does indicate that the proportion of crimes committed by foreigners has gone up in the past five years, but this cannot be attributed specifically to migrant arrivals.

On Monday, Trump tweeted that crime in Germany “is way up” as he assailed what he called a “big mistake” by Europe “in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!”

Trump's intrusive comments have poured fuel on the fire as hardliners in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc gave her an ultimatum to tighten asylum rules or risk a political crisis that would rattle Europe.

The US president himself faces intensifying pressure to end migrant family separations, which are occurring as a result of a “zero tolerance” policy requiring the arrest and prosecution of anyone who crosses the border illegally.

More than 2,300 children have been taken from their parents since early May, a practice loudly decried by rights groups and US politicians from both main parties.

Trump has said he wants family separations to end, but has sought to pin blame on opposition Democrats, accusing them of blocking legislation on the broader issue of illegal immigration.

He once more defended the administration's stance on Tuesday, tweeting: “We must always arrest people coming into our Country illegally.”

“If you don't have Borders, you don't have a Country!”

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POLITICS

Germany raids properties in bribery probe aimed at AfD politician

German officials said on Thursday they had raided properties as part of a bribery probe into an MP, who media say is a far-right AfD lawmaker accused of spreading Russian propaganda.

Germany raids properties in bribery probe aimed at AfD politician

The investigation targets Petr Bystron, the number-two candidate for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in next month’s European Parliament elections, Der Spiegel news outlet reported.

Police, and prosecutors in Munich, confirmed on Thursday they were conducting “a preliminary investigation against a member of the German Bundestag on the initial suspicion of bribery of elected officials and money laundering”, without giving a name.

Properties in Berlin, the southern state of Bavaria and the Spanish island of Mallorca were searched and evidence seized, they said in a statement.

About 70 police officers and 11 prosecutors were involved in the searches.

Last month, Bystron denied media reports that he was paid to spread pro-Russian views on a Moscow-financed news website, just one of several scandals that the extreme-right anti-immigration AfD is battling.

READ ALSO: How spying scandal has rocked troubled German far-right party

Bystron’s offices in the German parliament, the Bundestag, were searched after lawmakers voted to waive the immunity usually granted to MPs, his party said.

The allegations against Bystron surfaced in March when the Czech government revealed it had bust a Moscow-financed network that was using the Prague-based Voice of Europe news site to spread Russian propaganda across Europe.

Did AfD politicians receive Russian money?

Czech daily Denik N said some European politicians cooperating with the news site were paid from Russian funds, in some cases to fund their European Parliament election campaigns.

It singled out the AfD as being involved.

Denik N and Der Spiegel named Bystron and Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s top candidate for the European elections, as suspects in the case.

After the allegations emerged, Bystron said that he had “not accepted any money to advocate pro-Russian positions”.

Krah has denied receiving money for being interviewed by the site.

On Wednesday, the European Union agreed to impose a broadcast ban on the Voice of Europe, diplomats said.

The AfD’s popularity surged last year, when it capitalised on discontent in Germany at rising immigration and a weak economy, but it has dropped back in the face of recent scandals.

As well as the Russian propaganda allegations, the party has faced a Chinese spying controversy and accusations that it discussed the idea of mass deportations with extremists, prompting a wave of protests across Germany.

READ ALSO: Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

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