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CRIME

British military suspends civilians in corruption probe

Twenty-one civilians have been suspended following raids at several British military facilities in Germany this week. They are suspected of accepting bribes to give lucrative maintenance contracts to local companies.

Published: 30 April 2009 14:55 CEST
British military suspends civilians in corruption probe
Photo: DPA

“They are civilians working for the British armed forces and they have been suspended from their duties pending the investigation,” British military spokeswoman Helga Heine told The Local on Thursday.

She said the raids were conducted by German police at military locations and private residences.

“The police confiscated lots of hardware and files,” Heine said.

The civilian employees are thought to have taken money in return for making sure eight firms secured contracts to renovate army buildings and supply them.

Prosecutors in Wuppertal said that around 200 police officers and 50 officials searched British army premises at Mönchengladbach, Elmpt, Paderborn and Herford on Tuesday.

The authorities also suspect payments were made to non-existent shell companies for fake contracts in scams “costing the British government millions of euros.”

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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