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Man admits giving gun to neo-Nazi terrorists

A suspected associate of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) extremist gang that terrorized minorities between 2000 and 2007 has admitted to supplying the gang with a weapon it used in the killings, according his lawyer.

Published: 24 February 2012 10:39 CET
Man admits giving gun to neo-Nazi terrorists
Photo: DPA

The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Friday that a weapon provided by 31-year-old Carsten S. had been fired at least 26 times by a trio of terrorists during the killings of nine people of immigrant background and one police officer.

Carsten S., who was arrested earlier this month and charged with helping the NSU, is said to have been in contact with the cell members from 1998 before deciding to leave the extreme far-right scene a few years later.

His lawyer confirmed that his client did provide a weapon to the suspected terrorists but didn’t know they planned to kill people with it.

Officials had previously said that they suspected Carsten S. of maintaining contact with extremist circles even after officially leaving the scene. In addition to providing the NSU with a gun, he has also been accused of giving them money and ammunition.

The NSU killings, thought to have been perpetrated by two men who killed themselves when confronted by police in 2011 and a woman who is currently in custody, shocked the nation when revealed last year.

Police failed to connect the slayings to far-right extremists, instead suspecting the victims had been involved in criminal enterprises.

On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel apologized for the murders during a memorial ceremony, saying they “brought shame on our country.”

The Local/DPA/mdm

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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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