Man held for murder of Merkel ally ‘has links to the far-right’

A MAN arrested on suspicion of murdering a senior politician in Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats has links to Germany’s increasingly militant farright scene, local media reported last night.

Police in the central state of Hessen confirmed yesterday that they had detained a 45-year-old man on suspicion of murdering Walter Lübcke, the head of government in the city of Kassel.

Mr Lübcke, who had clashed with the far-right over immigration, was shot in the head on his garden patio late at night on June 2 and died almost immediately.

Police insiders told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that the suspect was a known far-right extremist. Separately, the tabloid Bild reported the suspect had a long criminal history and links to the far-right.

The arrest came after Germany’s intelligence services recently warned of a growing potential for violence in the country’s fragmented far-right scene, highlighting the danger of lone attackers radicalised over the internet.

Prosecutors in Hessen are set to give further details at a press conference today. They have not made an official response to the arrest other than to say that a DNA match led them to the suspect. They did not deny media reports.

While police have yet to comment on a possible motive for the crime, colleagues of Mr Lübcke went public soon after the murder with their fears that a far-right extremist was behind it.

The 65-year-old had become a hate figure after he told a town-hall meeting in 2015 that opponents of the government’s refugee policies were free to leave the country. A video of his comments spread online and Mr Lübcke briefly required police protection after he was inundated with death threats.

If suspicions that the murder was political are confirmed, it would be the most serious crime yet in a string of assassination attempts on proponents of Ms Merkel’s refugee policies.

At the height of the refugee crisis in 2015, an extremist stabbed the soon-tobe mayor of Cologne, Henriette Reker, as she was out campaigning. Two years later, Andreas Hollstein, town mayor in Altena, survived a similar knife attack.

Meanwhile federal prosecutors are investigating suspicions that a nationwide network of radicalised soldiers and police officers conspired to steal weapons and ammunition in preparation for a “Day X”.

Last week four elite police officers were arrested on suspicion of stealing munitions, including 10,000 bullets.