Germans at odds over attack video

BERLIN — Prosecutors leading the investigation into a far-right demonstration in Chemnitz said Saturday that there’s no evidence a video showing protesters chasing down and attacking a foreigner is fake, despite comments from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s domestic spy chief questioning its authenticity.

Dresden prosecutor Wolfgang Klein told Die Zeit newspaper the video was part of the body of evidence his office was using in its investigation of the spontaneous Aug. 26 protest, which drew hundreds angered by the killing that day of a German man.

An Iraqi and a Syrian have been arrested on charges of manslaughter in the stabbing, which authorities say occurred after a verbal altercation escalated.

Several migrants were hurt in the protests, and Merkel’s spokesman said foreigners had been targeted and “hunted” by the far-right activists. Merkel herself condemned the “hate on the streets.”

But on Friday, the head of the country’s domestic spy agency, Hans-Georg Maassen, told Bild newspaper he was skeptical that far-right protesters in Chemnitz had “hunted” foreigners down and questioned the authenticity of the video, suggesting it may have been shot elsewhere or at a different time.

Zeit newspaper reported that it examined the clip, and video shot shortly before, on the cellphone on which it was filmed and confirmed it was from the Aug. 26 protest.

Many have questioned Maassen’s motives for his remarks and on Saturday lawmaker Patrick Sensburg, Merkel’s party’s intelligence expert, said he would be brought before the parliamentary intelligence committee to explain.

“Maassen will now have to explain how he came to his assessment and why he made it known in the media,” Sensburg told the Handelsblatt newspaper.