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Purported paedophile attacked in Bremen after TV report

A 50-year-old man was severely beaten at his home in northwest Germany by a mob believing they recognized him from a television programme about paedophiles, police said on Thursday.

Published: 14 June 2018 12:45 CEST

Purported paedophile attacked in Bremen after TV report

Photo: DPA

In what authorities called a case of “vigilante justice”, the assailants will face charges of attempted murder.

The incident occurred on Tuesday after a television show was aired in which reporters attempt to contact suspected paedophiles via the internet.

The programme showed a man whose behaviour was deemed by the reporters to be suspicious.

After it was aired, local viewers thought they recognized the man and his address, went to his home and beat him savagely, leaving him critically injured.

The victim's life is no longer in danger and police said they had no reason to believe that he or anyone else from his block of flats was guilty of child abuse.

No suspects have been arrested and police asked the public for tips.

“The Bremen police stress that no one has the right to take justice into their own hands,” they said in a statement.

“Vigilante justice is intolerable. It is the task of prosecutors and the police to investigate crimes.”

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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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