Neo-Nazi arrest
November 24, 2011
German police have arrested another person suspected of having connections to the neo-Nazi terrorist organization, the National Socialist Underground (NSU).
The Federal Prosecutors Office in Karlsruhe said the man, 32-year-old Andre E., was arrested Thursday in the Mittelmark district of Potsdam in the eastern state of Brandenburg.
He is accused of having made a propaganda film in 2007 in which the NSU boasted about murdering nine people with immigrant backgrounds and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007.
In addition, he is believed to have provided two members of the Zwickau-based NSU with railway concession cards belonging to him and his wife.
Intelligence and police failure
The Federal Prosecutors Office said Andre E. had been in close contact with the NSU since 2003.
German authorities are still investigating why intelligence agencies and police failed for so long to recognize that the string of murders allegedly committed by the NSU had far-right extremist motives.
Police only discovered the existence of the group earlier this month when two male members were found dead in a camper in the eastern city of Eisenach after a bank robbery. The weapons connected to the murder of the 10 victims were found in their Zwickau apartment after their deaths.
A third female member, Beate Zschäpe, gave herself up to police a few days later. Another suspected member and an alleged helper are already in custody.
Police are still looking for other possible members and supporters of the group.
Author: Timothy Jones (Reuters, dpa, AFP)
Editor: Martin Kuebler
Editor's note: Deutsche Welle is bound by German law and the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and obliges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.