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CRIME

Twin KaDeWe robbery suspects’ family in ‘red light scene’

The 27-year-old twin suspects in the sensational jewellery robbery at Germany’s most famous department store, the KaDeWe in Berlin, apparently have relatives with a criminal past, daily Berliner Morgenpost reported on Friday.

Twin KaDeWe robbery suspects' family in 'red light scene'
Photo: DPA

“So far they aren’t talking about the allegations,” Berlin police spokesperson Michael Grunwald told the paper, adding that police are still searching for the jewellery.

The suspects, Hassan and Abbas O. will be interrogated in the coming week. Police still aren’t sure what kind of role they played in the robbery, the paper said.

The brothers come from a Lebanese family in Lower Saxony that is related to a large “clan” in Berlin, the paper reported. “This clan has a close connection to the red light scene,” according to the paper.

One family member apparently ran over a 77-year-old tourist near Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz in October 2008 and then fled the scene. He died fleeing from police in a December car chase. Police have refused to comment on whether they think the KaDeWe robbery was a family affair.

This Wednesday, police arrested the two – who did not resist – in the town of Rotenburg in Lower Saxony.

In what has been described as one of the most spectacular heists in post-war German history, thieves used a ladder to climb onto a projecting roof on the Ansbacherstrasse side of the grand old store on January 25. They relieved the massive shopping paradise of €6 million in jewellery and luxury watches.

CCTV evidence suggests that three masked men then took their loot in two stages, using the projecting roof to store the valuables while they returned to get more. Police are still trying to work out why no alarms were triggered during the robbery.

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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