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MAD headquarters in Cologne
Photo: Federico Gambarini / dpa
According to SPIEGEL information, the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) has significantly expanded its investigations against right-wing extremist soldiers.
In a confidential meeting of the Defense Committee, the Defense Department reported that the MAD was currently processing 712 suspected cases of right-wing extremism.
Since August the number has risen from 638 by a good ten percent.
The MAD classifies soldiers as suspected cases against whom either their own findings are available or who have been reported by comrades because of an extremist attitude.
If the suspicion is confirmed by the troop intelligence investigations, the Bundeswehr will seek disciplinary proceedings against the soldiers.
In particularly serious cases, the procedures can lead to exclusion from the force.
In early summer, the elite unit "Special Forces Command" (KSK) was shaken by several revelations about right-wing extremist tendencies.
Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer then ordered a fundamental reform of the unit.
The second company of the KSK was disbanded because suspected cases had conspicuously accumulated there.
The case of KSK soldier Philipp Sch caused a stir.
at which an arsenal with thousands of rounds of ammunition and two kilograms of plastic explosives was found in May.
According to SPIEGEL information, the investigators assume that Sch.
stole the explosives during a Bundeswehr exercise in 2015.
Sch.
has been in custody since the May raid.
Already in June, MAD boss Christof Gramm said at a public hearing of the parliamentary control committee for the intelligence services that one sees a "new dimension" in the problem of right-wing extremism in the Bundeswehr.
"We take a closer look, at extremists and also at people with a lack of constitutional loyalty. We will find what we are looking for," said Gramm.
At that time, the number of known suspected cases was a good 600.
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