A ZDF camera team is attacked after filming. Six people are arrested - and released. The state security determined.
Berlin (dpa) - After the attack on a camera team of the ZDF satellite broadcast "heute-show" on May Day in Berlin, the state security investigates. That said Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik on Saturday in the RBB-Inforadio.
Because of the ongoing investigations, she did not want to comment on further findings, such as the political background of the perpetrators. "It was a really cowardly attack," said Slowik.
Initially, six suspects had been arrested and, according to dpa information, are on the left spectrum. On Saturday, however, they were released. The General Prosecutor's Office in Berlin said in the evening that no arrest warrant had been issued. Four of the detainees had no urgent suspicion, two had no grounds for detention.
According to the police, the detainees were four men aged 24, 25 and 31, and two women 25 and 27 years old, respectively. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office refused to comment further on the possible background to the crime or the identity of the detainees.
The seven-member ZDF team filmed a demonstration against the corona rules on Friday afternoon, in which right-wing populists and supporters of conspiracy theories had also participated. On the way back to their vehicles, they were attacked by 20 to 25 hooded men, according to the police. According to the initial findings, the attackers kicked the team and hit them with a metal bar. Near the crime scene in Rochstrasse - near Hackeschen Höfe and Alexanderplatz - police officers detained the six suspects.
The editor, the cameraman and the camera assistant as well as three security staff who had accompanied the camera team had to be treated in the hospital, as the ZDF announced on Saturday. A police spokeswoman initially spoke of four injuries. All six had already left the hospital on Friday, according to ZDF.
Reporter Abdelkarim, who was unharmed in the attack, thanked security guards, witnesses, police officers and paramedics on Twitter on Twitter for their help. "According to a security guard, we were lucky in misfortune. The whole thing could have ended much more tragically," he wrote.
The attackers attacked the team with homicides, quoted ZDF Harald Ortmann, the managing director of the production company involved. Ortmann explained that three security guards were hired in advance for the shoot. This is now standard for filming demonstrations. Ortmann said they were seriously injured when they tried to help the sound assistant and the cameraman. "Our sound assistant was kicked in the face - with a level of brutality that people accepted that a person would not survive."
The chairman of the German Association of Journalists, Frank Überall, called the attack on Friday an attack on freedom of the press. Similarly, ZDF program director Norbert Himmler had previously condemned the attack. "Freedom of the press is a great asset - especially these days. However, our concern now is first and foremost for the team members and their health."
Numerous politicians also commented on the incident. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) wished the team on Twitter a speedy recovery. "We are at your side! Don't let your humor and passion take away from cowardly violent criminals," he continued.
CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak said: "I am stunned by the cowardly attack on the team of heute-show and thus on the freedom of the press in our country. I wish the injured a speedy recovery!" The Rhineland AfD parliamentary group leader Uwe Junge shared a report with the words: "It doesn't work at all! Relentless clarification and comprehensive reporting, please!" Other people commented on reports approvingly: "I assume that they deserve it," it said.