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Rape suspect beaten to death in car park

A man was beaten to death in a car park in southern Germany on Wednesday evening in an apparent revenge killing after being accused of raping a woman.

Published: 19 June 2014 16:55 CEST

Rape suspect beaten to death in car park

Police in the car park on Thursday. Photo: DPA

The 27-year-old man died from his injuries after the beating in Neuenburg, Baden-Württemberg, near the French border, at around 6pm. Paramedics from France treated the man but could not save his life. He died at the scene.

Police believe he was killed by friends of a woman who suspected him of raping her almost a week earlier on June 12th.

They said family members of the woman were present at the car park, but it is unclear whether the man agreed to meet them there of if he was attacked without warning.

“There was considerable violence,” a spokeswoman for Freiburg police said on Thursday. Four suspects were arrested on Wednesday night and were questioned on Thursday.

The police spokeswoman said the man knew the woman who was raped in the nearby town of Müllheim. According to the Bädische Zeitung they were on first name terms but were not in a relationship.

An arrest warrant for the 27-year-old had been issued and he had been on the run.

SEE ALSO: Mother and daughter killed in own home

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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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