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Rally in July 2020 in Wiesbaden: More than 100 threatening letters
Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa
For three years, almost three dozen people received threatening e-mails signed with the code »NSU 2.0« - now finally there is an explanation: Special forces of the Hessian police arrested a 53-year-old suspect on Monday during a house search in Berlin in custody.
Many questions are still open, an overview of the case:
Why is?
Since August 2018, people across the country have received letters with inciting, insulting and threatening content.
The abbreviation "NSU 2.0" under the news refers to the right-wing extremist terror group "National Socialist Underground", which committed ten murders in Germany between 2000 and 2007.
The recipients of the messages included the Frankfurt lawyer Seda Başay-Yıldız, the cabaret artist İdil Baydar and today's Left Party leader Janine Wissler.
Members of the Bundestag and media workers were also among the victims.
By mid-March of this year alone, the authorities had registered 133 threatening letters, according to the Hessian Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU), of which 115 were attributed to the "NSU 2.0" crime complex.
The letters were therefore addressed to 32 people and 60 institutions in a total of nine federal states and in Austria.
They were mainly sent as e-mails, but also by fax, SMS and internet contact forms.
The letters therefore contained a large amount of personal data on more than 20 of the persons concerned.
Beuth had appointed a special investigator last year after it became clear that the data of some recipients had been queried by Hessian police computers.
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One lead led to five police officers and a colleague from a Frankfurt police station.
Immediately before the first fax was sent to Seda Başay-Yıldız, data about the lawyer had been requested.
The officers are also said to have shared pictures of Hitler and swastikas in a chat group called "Itiotentreff".
The suspicion arose that, of all people, members of the police might have supported the "NSU 2.0" or even invented it.
The accused Frankfurt officials were suspended and the public prosecutor began investigations.
(You can find out more about this here.)
Who is the now caught suspect?
He is not a police officer, but a long-term unemployed from Berlin.
According to SPIEGEL information, the suspect is called Alexander M. and is 53 years old.
The trained skilled worker for electronic data processing has a criminal record, among other things for dangerous bodily harm, fraud, forgery of documents, receiving stolen goods, threats, insults, defamation, possession of child pornography and forgery of documents.
The Berlin police have already conducted dozens of proceedings against M.
So far, nothing is known about a possible motive for the crime.
There are no further details about the suspect's previous life either.
How did the investigators track down the man?
The authorities announced that the police operation in Berlin was the result of an extensive joint investigation by the public prosecutor's office and the Hessian state criminal investigation office.
State Interior Minister Beuth said a team led by special investigator Hanspeter Mener had "left no stone unturned for ten months to tear the alleged perpetrator out of the anonymity of the Darknet."
According to the President of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger Münch, M. was finally arrested "on the open computer".
According to SPIEGEL information, the suspect's criminal record also includes a conviction for presumption of office, which is interesting because in the NSU 2.0 case, several witnesses - including employees of the newspaper "taz" - reported suspicious calls from an alleged police officer to wanted to get private data from journalists.
In addition, the Hessian investigators suspect Alexander M. of having asked the authorities by telephone.
It is said that M. could also have obtained illegally distributed data on those affected from the Darknet.
How does it go from here?
The data carriers seized during the apartment search are now to be evaluated.
The authorities are investigating, among other things, the suspicion of sedition, the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations, the threat and the insult.
Much is still unclear about the case - for example, how many of the threatening emails can possibly be attributed to Alexander M.
At the end of July last year it became known that there are apparently free riders.
A retired police officer from Bavaria and his wife are said to have sent threatening messages with the abbreviation "NSU 2.0".
A total of 18 letters are attributed to such free riders.
From the point of view of the Hessian interior minister, the new findings relieve the police in his state.
"The threatening letters had raised very serious suspicions about the police," Beuth said now.
"From what we know today, a Hessian police officer was never responsible for the 'NSU 2.0' threatening mail series."
The "years of disgusting threats and intimidation against public figures" could now be punished in a legal process, according to Beuth.
"If the suspicion is proven, dozens of innocent victims and the entire Hessian police can breathe a sigh of relief."
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Interior Minister Beuth: Officials exonerated
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Arne Dedert / dpa
At the same time, the CDU politician assured that the case would “draw further lessons for our security authorities.
The investigation will continue with the same tenacity and meticulousness that has now led to success. "
The Hessian Justice Minister Eva Kühne-Hörmann also welcomed the success of the search, the CDU politician spoke of an "outstanding step in clearing up this series of cowardly acts".
She went on to say: "If the urgent suspicion is confirmed, this is great news for the victims, but also for the citizens of our country." She was convinced: "Hatred, agitation and threats will not gain the upper hand."
mxw / jdl / srö / wow / dpa / AFP
