Passing on information to right-wing magazine: Public prosecutor's office stops investigations against police officers

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Chemnitz Public Prosecutor's Office (archive image)

Photo: Hendrik Schmidt / dpa

The Chemnitz public prosecutor has closed an investigation against a Saxon police officer.

The suspicion that the officer had given internals to the right magazine "Compact" has been dispelled, the authority said.

Now it is no longer investigated for spying on data and breach of official secrecy.

The man also did not send an email with photos of penalty orders and notes from the investigation. The complaint was filed by Henry A., the man against whom this investigation was conducted, from which internals were leaked. A. suspected a police officer after As's cell phone was seized during a house search by the State Criminal Police Office (LKA). According to the public prosecutor's office, however, the investigations had unequivocally revealed that someone from A's environment had access to his storage media and passed the data on to an unknown third party. This in turn sent the emails. In addition, the acquaintance of As »Compact« gave information in an interview. It is said that he or she is now being investigated for spying on data.

The police officer, an investigator of the LKA's »Soko LinX«, which specializes in left-wing extremist crimes, was suspected in October of having pierced internal investigations into the »Compact« magazine. The magazine, classified as a suspected right-wing extremist case by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, had published intimate and reputation-damaging details from Henry A.'s private life in several articles. A. is a clerk in the Leipzig Office for Building Regulations and Monument Preservation. Some of this information apparently came from A's cell phone, which was found during an apartment search. The case, which SPIEGEL also reported on, dates back some time - because the officer in question was involved in investigations against A. years ago, which were ultimately discontinued.

It is not yet known who the person from Henry A.'s environment is and what a possible motive for the crime could be.

A spokesman for the public prosecutor's office only told SPIEGEL that it was a person from close, private surroundings.

mxw / bbr / AFP