SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Singer praised neo-Nazi immigrant murders

German prosecutors said Tuesday they had charged the lead singer of a suspected neo-Nazi band who wrote a song about a series of racist murders thought to have been carried out by far-right extremists.

Singer praised neo-Nazi immigrant murders
Photo: DPA

Authorities in the northwestern German city of Osnabrück said they had charged the 42-year-old lead singer of the band “Gigi and the Brown Town Musicians” with incitement to racial hatred.

Prosecutors are also investigating two other songs on a CD entitled “Adolf Hitler Lives.” One calls for all Turks in Germany to be deported to Istanbul, the other denies any Jews died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Alexander Retemeyer, a spokesman for prosecutors, told AFP: “We have pressed charges of incitement to racial hatred at the local court in Meppen.”

So far, only the singer, who has not been named by authorities, is under suspicion because he wrote the lyrics.

Germans have been shocked at the recent discovery of a small far-right group believed responsible for the unsolved murders of eight men of Turkish origin and a Greek between 2000 and 2006 as well as a German policewoman in 2007.

The killings had long been called the “kebab murders” because some victims ran snack shops.

Two members of the so-called National Socialist Underground claimed responsibility for the 10 deaths as well as a 2004 bombing in predominantly Turkish district of Cologne which wounded more than 20 people.

The two were found dead in November in an apparent suicide.

On Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to lead a service commemorating the murders.

AFP/mdm

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CRIME

Berlin’s former mayor injured amid spate of attacks on German politicians

Berlin's former mayor Franziska Giffey suffered light injuries after being hit on the head with a bag as police investigate a series of attacks on politicians in Germany.

Berlin's former mayor injured amid spate of attacks on German politicians

Giffey, who is currently Berlin’s senator for economic affairs, was assaulted at a library in the district of Rudow on Tuesday afternoon, police said on Wednesday. 

The suspect attacked Giffey “from behind with a bag filled with hard contents and hit her on the head and neck”. police said in a statement.

Giffey, who is a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), was briefly treated in hospital for “head and neck pain”, said police. 

Berlin’s current mayor Kai Wegner condemned the assault on Giffey, saying anyone who attacks politicians are “attacking our democracy”.

“We will not tolerate this,” he said, vowing to examine “tougher sentences for attacks against politicians”.

It comes amid a spate of attacks on politicians in the run up to the European elections next month. 

Less than three hours later in the eastern city of Dresden, there was another attack on a Green Party politician while the conference of interior ministers was meeting at the same time.

Police said the victim was a 47-year-old woman who was threatened and spat on. 

The politician was putting up campaign posters for the European elections when a man came up, pushed her to the side and tore down two posters.

The man insulted and threatened the politician, while a woman joined in and spat on the victim, police said.

Both suspects were arrested, police said, identifying them as a 34-year-old German man and a 24-year-old woman.

S-Bahn in Dresden

A train drives through Dresden, which has seen two attacks on politicians recently. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Robert Michael

Both were in a group who were standing at the area and who had begun making the banned Hitler salute when the politician began hanging up posters.

The suspects were arrested, police said, identifying them as a 34-year-old German man and a 24-year-old woman.

Last Friday, a European parliament lawmaker, also of the SPD, was seriously injured by four attackers last week as he put up EU election posters – also in Dresden.

Matthias Ecke, 41, needed an operation for serious injuries sustained in the attack, which was denounced by Scholz as a threat to democracy.

READ ALSO: Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician 

The incidents have sparked a debate in Germany over the safety of politicians and how best to deal with the violence. 

Berlin interior senator Iris Spranger (SPD), said on X: “I strongly condemn the attack on Franziska Giffey and on other politicians and election workers, all of whom are committed to a democratic debate.”

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

SHOW COMMENTS