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CRIME

Priest charged with embezzling over €1 mln

A former Catholic priest in Bavaria is awaiting trial following after being charged with embezzling Church funds totalling over €1 million.

Published: 8 February 2011 16:59 CET
Priest charged with embezzling over €1 mln
Photo: DPA

A retired clergyman, now 77, presided over several parishes in the Main-Spessart county, faces 50 counts of serious fraud for pocketing €1.088 million that was intended for a Church foundation and the diocese, according to state prosecutors in Würzburg.

Following a raid on his home, police discovered that the retired priest had been hoarding cash donated to the Church as well as a collection of other valuable objects such as rare coins.

He was also found to have used Church funds tied up in savings bonds and annuity agreements to channel money into accounts that only he had access to and that were unknown to the Church. A large part of the stolen cash was insured.

His former congregation were reportedly shocked at the turn of events, given that the accused was known as being a famously frugal character.

Having retired in December 2009, the man was arrested last May and has been awaiting trial in a monastery in the district of Lower Franconia. He is on remand as there is no perceived risk of collusion or fleeing charges.

The former priest has since admitted the charges against him.

DAPD/The Local/rm

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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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