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Lorenz Caffier (archive image)
Photo: Jens Büttner / dpa
The Rostock public prosecutor's office accuses CDU politician Lorenz Caffier of taking advantage in two cases.
The former Minister of the Interior of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is said to have received a semi-automatic handgun worth around 800 euros from an arms dealer free of charge in January 2018.
He is also said to have taken part in free shooting training for instruction, and the ammunition for it was also given to him.
Therefore, the Güstrow district court has now issued a penalty order of 13,500 euros against Caffier.
This sum corresponds to 45 daily rates of 300 euros each, as court director Andreas Millat said.
The gun was ordered to be confiscated, Millat said.
The penalty order is not final.
According to the court, Caffier now has two weeks to file an objection.
In that case there would be a trial in court.
If there is no objection, the penalty order becomes final.
Caffier himself said when asked that he would not comment on the matter.
His lawyer could not be reached.
The gun affair led to Caffier's resignation as interior minister in November 2020;
he kept his mandate in the Landtag.
He has not been a member of the state parliament since the election in September.
At the time, Caffier initially evaded questions about buying a weapon, but then admitted in an interview with SPIEGEL that he had already obtained a pistol in 2018 from an arms dealer and firing range operator, whose system was also used by the police for shooting training for years.
According to intelligence, the man is said to have had contacts with the right-wing extremist prepper group "Nordkreuz" as early as 2017.
According to Caffier's account, the State Criminal Police Office only became aware of this in May 2019.
“I bought a gun from someone I shouldn't have bought it from from today's perspective.
But: It wasn't the acquisition that was a mistake, but my handling of it.
I apologize for that, ”said Caffier's declaration of resignation at the time.
After his retirement from the office of interior minister, however, according to the Rostock public prosecutor's office, Caffier was unable to prove that he had bought the weapon.
Therefore, the investigators accuse him of taking advantage, which now led to the penalty order.
ulz / dpa
