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CRIME

Victims’ parents planning school shooting hotline

A new foundation being formed to prevent school attacks has announced plans to create an early-warning system and 24-hour hotline for students to report threats.

Victims' parents planning school shooting hotline
Photo: DPA

The foundation, Gegen Gewalt an Schulen, or “Against violence in schools,” will be officially founded on November 18 thanks to donations of some €50,000. It was formed out of the action alliance Amoklauf Winnenden created by community members in Winnenden after a 17-year-old killed 15 people and himself at his former school and in flight from the crime scene on March 11.

Members include parents of students killed by the shooter.

The new warning system will include a phone and text message hotline, in addition to an online form where students can register evidence of threats from fellow classmates, Amoklauf Winnenden spokeswoman Gisela Mayer said as the scheme was announced on Monday.

The organisation will be aided by church networks and crime prevention organisations to stay running 24-hours a day in the state of Baden-Württemberg where the shooting occurred, and then later across the nation, she added.

In the nearby state of Bavaria, an 18-year-old student attacked an Ansbach high school with five Molotov cocktails, knives and an axe in September. One teacher and nine students were injured – two girls severely.

In May a 16-year-old student nearly severed a fellow classmates’ thumb with a knife when she was caught off guard before she could carry out an arson attack on her school near Bonn.

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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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