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CRIME

German ‘Maddie’ suspect refuses to speak about case

The German man suspected of kidnapping and murdering British girl Madeleine McCann has refused to speak about the case, one of his lawyers told German television.

Published: 11 June 2020 09:11 CEST
German 'Maddie' suspect refuses to speak about case
The suspect Christian B. is currently serving a sentence in Kiel prison. Photo: DPA

“Christian B. is not making any statements on the case for the moment and we ask you to understand that as his defence, we won't either,” Friedrich Fülscher told rolling news channel NTV.

German police raised hopes last Wednesday that the 13-year mystery over three-year-old “Maddie” could finally be solved when they revealed they are investigating a 43-year-old German man over her disappearance from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in 2007.

German police called the man a “murder suspect” who may have killed the young girl.

The suspect, named as Christian B. by German media, has a history of previous sex offences including child abuse and rape.

Currently held at Kiel prison in the north of Germany, the suspect is serving out a jail term for drug trafficking.

The suspect has had to be moved to an isolation cell for his safety, said Claus Christian Claussen, the regional justice minister of Schleswig-Holstein state.

He is not allowed to leave his cell unless accompanied by guards and not at the same time as other detainees to avoid attacks against him, said the minister during a hearing of the regional parliament.

Defence lawyers who had been charged with his defence have quit their mandate without giving a reason.

They have been replaced by a new team who have threatened lawsuits against their client's acquaintances who described him as aggressive and suspicious.

Madeleine McCann's parents in 2002. Photo: DPA

READ ALSO: What we know so far about German suspect in Maddie case

Mystery remains

Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday apartment on May 3rd, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.

Her disappearance sparked one of the biggest searches of its kind in recent years.

Despite a wide range of suspects and theories about what happened, no one has ever been convicted over her kidnapping and no trace of her has been found.

READ ALSO: German prosecutors assume Madeleine McCann is dead as they investigate new suspect

After Christian B. was identified as a new suspect, German police have said they are investigating if there is a link between the man and the case of another missing child in Germany.

The five-year-old girl named Inga from the town of Schönebeck in Saxony-Anhalt in 2015 disappeared without a trace in the woods while on an outing with her family.

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CRIME

German far-right politician fined €13,000 for using Nazi slogan

A German court has convicted one of the country's most controversial far-right politicians, Björn Höcke, of deliberately using a banned Nazi slogan at a rally.

Published: 15 May 2024 08:43 CEST
German far-right politician fined €13,000 for using Nazi slogan

The court fined Höcke, 52, of the far-right AfD party, €13,000 for using the phrase “Alles fuer Deutschland” (“Everything for Germany”) during a 2021 campaign rally.

Once a motto of the so-called Sturmabteilung paramilitary group that played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, the phrase is illegal in modern-day Germany, along with the Nazi salute and other slogans and symbols from that era.

The former high school history teacher claimed not to have been aware that the phrase had been used by the Nazis, telling the court he was “completely not guilty”.

Höcke said he thought the phrase was an “everyday saying”.

But prosecutors argued that Höcke used the phrase in full knowledge of its “origin and meaning”.

They had sought a six-month suspended sentence plus two years’ probation, and a payment of €10,000 to a charitable organisation.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, after the trial, Höcke said the “ability to dissent is in jeopardy”.

“If this verdict stands, free speech will be dead in Germany,” he added.

Höcke, the leader of the AfD in Thuringia, is gunning to become Germany’s first far-right state premier when the state holds regional elections in September.

With the court ordering only a fine rather than a jail term, the verdict is not thought to threaten his candidacy at the elections.

‘AfD scandals’

The trial is one of several controversies the AfD is battling ahead of European Parliament elections in June and regional elections in the autumn in Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony.

Founded in 2013, the anti-Islam and anti-immigration AfD saw a surge in popularity last year – its 10th anniversary – seizing on concerns over rising migration, high inflation and a stumbling economy.

But its support has wavered since the start of 2024, as it contends with scandals including allegations that senior party members were paid to spread pro-Russian views on a Moscow-financed news website.

Considered an extremist by German intelligence services, Höcke is one of the AfD’s most controversial personalities.

He has called Berlin’s Holocaust monument a “memorial of shame” and urged a “180-degree shift” in the country’s culture of remembrance.

Höcke was convicted of using the banned slogan at an election rally in Merseburg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in the run-up to Germany’s 2021 federal election.

READ ALSO: How worried should Germany be about the far-right AfD after mass deportation scandal?

He had also been due to stand trial on a second charge of shouting “Everything for…” and inciting the audience to reply “Germany” at an AfD meeting in Thuringia in December.

However, the court decided to separate the proceedings for the second charge, announced earlier this month, because the defence had not had enough time to prepare.

Prosecutor Benedikt Bernzen on Friday underlined the reach of Höcke’s statement, saying that a video of it had been clicked on 21,000 times on the Facebook page of AfD Sachsen-Anhalt alone.

Höcke’s defence lawyer Philip Müller argued the rally was an “insignificant campaign event” and that the offending statement was only brought to the public’s notice by the trial.

Germany’s domestic security agency has labelled the AfD in Thuringia a “confirmed” extremist organisation, along with the party’s regional branches in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.

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