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Officials of a special task force (SEK) of the Frankfurt police (archive picture)
Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa
In Hesse, far more police officers took part in chats with right-wing extremist content than expected.
Hesse's Interior Minister Peter Beuth named the total of 49 active officials in the state parliament.
There are also seven chat participants who are not Hessian police officers.
According to the statement, no criminal proceedings will be taken against 24 of these 56 participants, not even disciplinary.
A few days ago, Beuth had disbanded the SEK of the Frankfurt police headquarters because of right-wing extremist statements by police officers in chat groups.
So far, the Hessian authorities have investigated 20 police officers between the ages of 29 and 54 because of the dissemination of seditious content.
These accused are a former police officer and 19 active officers, 18 of whom are members of the SEK.
Among other things, swastikas and Hitler pictures are said to have been exchanged.
Hessens SPD parliamentary group leader Nancy Faeser said according to "Hessenschau", the declaration by Minister Beuth (CDU) shows that it is a much larger dimension than previously known.
In addition, the question arises as to why the LKA Hessen is conducting the investigation, even though two LKA officials are being prosecuted in the case.
The starting point of the scandal was an investigation against a 38-year-old officer of a special task force at the Frankfurt police headquarters because of the possession and distribution of child pornography.
When evaluating his smartphone, the investigators discovered several chats in which they were able to identify content that was partly criminally relevant and numerous other participants in the chat groups.
According to the investigators, the right-wing extremist posts in the chat groups are mainly from the years 2016 and 2017. The last relevant content was found in chats from the beginning of 2019.
It is not the first investigation into right-wing extremist chat groups with the Hessian police.
For example, after a right-wing extremist chat group was exposed in 2018, a number of colleagues were investigated.
In February the Frankfurt public prosecutor charged four men.
Since 2015, there have been 77 proceedings against Hessian police officers on suspicion of right-wing extremist attitudes, the Ministry of the Interior announced last October.
According to a management report, there have been around 380 suspected right-wing extremism cases in the federal and state security authorities in the past three years.
ala / dpa
