The interior minister in the state of Hesse dissolved the special operations unit after 20 officers shared Nazi symbols in a chat group and engaged in hate speech.
German law enforcement and judiciary maintain “sole perpetrator” narrative in far-right terrorist threats
Lawyers, cultural workers, investigative journalists, representatives of faith communities and leading politicians have been threatened in Germany for almost three years by a group calling itself “NSU 2.0.” The perpetrators whose moniker is a reference to the fascist terrorist group National Socialist Underground (NSU) responsible for the murder of nine immigrants and a police officer have repeatedly made use of confidential information retrieved from police databases.
On Tuesday night, special forces of the Hesse state police arrested a 53-year-old right-wing extremist in Berlin, seizing a ready-to-use firearm and several data storage devices. The investigating Hesse State Criminal Police Office and Interior Minister Peter Beuth (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) have since presented the man as being the sole author of all the threatening messages.
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The 53-year-old is accused of sending a series of race-baiting, insulting and threatening letters since August 2018.
Many of the messages were signed “from the NSU 2.0,” a reference to the now disbanded National Socialist Underground (NSU), a far-right terrorist group responsible for a number of murders and terrorist actions against immigrants and prominent left-wing figures.
Interior Minister for the state of Hesse, Peter Beuth, said in March that a total of 115 letters had been sent to 32 people and 60 institutions in nine German states.
Public prosecutors in Frankfurt said that the suspect had a series of prior convictions for extremist activities.
Far-right extremism is on the rise in Germany. Last year scores of serving police officials were suspected of involvement in WhatsApp groups that circulated neonazi propaganda material.