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POLICE

Two arrested over far-right arson and threats in Berlin

Two men have been arrested over a series of arson and threats in Berlin in what investigators believe are far-right motivated crimes, prosecutors in the German capital said Wednesday.

Two arrested over far-right arson and threats in Berlin
Police siren. Photo: DPA

At least 72 cases of arson targeting cars or threats were recorded between 2016 and 2018 in Berlin's Neukölln district.

The attacks were aimed at left-leaning activists or volunteers helping
refugees.

Berlin police “carried out arrest warrants today against two suspects,”
said prosecutors in a tweet, adding that the operation related to a “series of suspected extreme right motivated violations in Berlin-Neukölln”.

Authorities did not name the two suspects but they were identified as
Sebastian T. and Tilo P. by Tagesspiegel daily.

Ferat Kocak, a local politician from the Left party whose car went up in
flames at night in 2018, said he was afraid despite the arrests.

“Fear that they will be free again. Fear that they will carry out an act of
revenge,” he wrote on Twitter.

Europe's biggest economy has been hit by a string of far-right attacks over the last 18 months, leading Interior Minister Seehofer to point to far-right extremism as the “biggest security threat facing Germany”.

Among a string of far-right terrorist attacks that have shocked Germany are the assassination of pro-refugee politician Walter Lübcke at his home in June 2019 and the murder in the western city of Hanau of nine people of migrant origin in February.

READ ALSO: After Hanau: How can Germany deal with extreme far-right terror?

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POLICE

Denmark convicts man over bomb joke at airport

A Danish court on Thursday gave a two-month suspended prison sentence to a 31-year-old Swede for making a joke about a bomb at Copenhagen's airport this summer.

Denmark convicts man over bomb joke at airport

In late July, Pontus Wiklund, a handball coach who was accompanying his team to an international competition, said when asked by an airport agent that
a bag of balls he was checking in contained a bomb.

“We think you must have realised that it is more than likely that if you say the word ‘bomb’ in response to what you have in your bag, it will be perceived as a threat,” the judge told Wiklund, according to broadcaster TV2, which was present at the hearing.

The airport terminal was temporarily evacuated, and the coach arrested. He later apologised on his club’s website.

“I completely lost my judgement for a short time and made a joke about something you really shouldn’t joke about, especially in that place,” he said in a statement.

According to the public prosecutor, the fact that Wiklund was joking, as his lawyer noted, did not constitute a mitigating circumstance.

“This is not something we regard with humour in the Danish legal system,” prosecutor Christian Brynning Petersen told the court.

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