It was an enormous suspicion that was considered to have been dispelled: an officer of the State Criminal Police Office is said to have one of the two main suspects in the right-wing extremist Neukölln attack series met privately in a pubBoth are said to have left the bar together. Now, however, suspicions are being raised again: the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is sticking to its original version, contrary to the police.
The incident, which is said to have taken place in March 2018 in the Rudow pub “Ostburger Eck”, was the subject of investigations by special investigators from the “Fokus” task force, who were tasked with investigating any mishaps in the series of attacks. In their final report, the police investigators concluded that there are more doubts than evidence regarding the alleged meeting between the official, Andreas W., and the neo-Nazi, Sebastian T.
The police now assume that the officers observing the incident simply confused Sebastian T. with a friend of Andreas W., who was said to have been in the bar that same evening. The incident was not observed by police officers, but by officers from the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The police therefore accuse the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of having wrongly identified – in other words, of having done a poor job – one of Berlin’s most prominent neo-Nazis, one of the few classified as a right-wing extremist “threat”.
The incident is also being investigated by the investigative committee in the Berlin House of Representatives, which is looking into the series of attacks and possible investigative errors. The representatives are currently questioning employees of the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution. And they described the same disagreement with regard to the incident in the “Ostburger Eck”: According to them, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is certain that it has identified Sebastian T. accompanied by Andreas W.
Police and Office for the Protection of the Constitution insist on their respective versions
A department head at the agency reported on Friday about a conversation between the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the State Criminal Police Office, in which both sides insisted on their respective versions. Which version was more credible “is beyond my judgment,” she said in the public part of the meeting.
In a secret meeting, the committee then questioned two surveillance officers who were on duty that evening. Nothing is publicly known about their statements. However, according to Tagesspiegel information, they are said to have confirmed the statements of the head of department – and to be certain that they had identified T. and were in a position to do so.
The suspicion that an officer hit one of the main suspects in the series of attacks remains.
Niklas Schrader, Left Party MP
Some MPs also doubt the police’s version of events. “The suspicion that an officer hit one of the main suspects in the series of attacks still exists,” said Left Party politician Niklas Schrader to the Tagesspiegel. “There are still considerable doubts about the police and Interior Senate’s version of events.” In addition, the police were never able to prove 100 percent that Andreas W. had no contact with Sebastian T.
Ostburger Eck was “not just a football pub”
The chairman of the committee, Green Party politician Vasili Franco, made similar comments. Franco noted that the witnesses from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had so far remained very reserved and had said little of substance, for example about the importance and prioritization of the issue of right-wing extremism.
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Regarding the Ostburger Eck case, Franco said that the MPs now have more questions than answers about the incident. “Given the different versions of the surveillance given by the police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, it is more than unsatisfactory that the incident was not resolved consistently and promptly. Instead, there is simply disagreement and the case is closed.”
Franco continued that the incident would ultimately raise other questions. It was also clear that, from the authorities’ point of view, the Ostburger Eck was “not just a football pub” at the time, but was recognized as a right-wing meeting place, at least on that day. The police had always claimed the opposite.
When the accusation became public via an official certificate from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Andreas W. was himself an observation officer in the Mobile Task Force (MEK). However, he is not believed to have been deployed in the context of the series of right-wing extremist attacks. An internal investigation against W. was discontinued due to a lack of evidence. However, the suspicion was so serious that the Berlin police in the Neukölln series of attacks only relied on external observation forces.
The investigative committee is to investigate possible investigative errors and abuses surrounding the series of right-wing attacks in Neukölln. The authorities attribute at least 72 right-wing crimes to the series, including 23 arson attacks. The Berlin Regional Court is currently rolling out the Trial against the two main suspects, besides T. the former AfD politician Tilo P., has been resumed.
