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July 06, 2021 – 12:39 Clock
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Duisburg (dpa / lnw) – In the scandal surrounding right-wing extremist police chats, the Duisburg public prosecutor’s office applied for penal orders against six suspects. The investigations against seven other members of the chat have been suspended due to the statute of limitations or lack of sufficient suspicion, the public prosecutor announced on Tuesday. The investigations are still ongoing in 13 other cases.
Five of the penalty orders applied for at the District Court of Mülheim / Ruhr concern, among other things, the dissemination of symbols of unconstitutional organizations and sedition. The contents were provided with the request to forward them, it said. The “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” had previously reported.
The sixth penalty order is directed against a police officer from the Essen Police Headquarters, the partner of one of the accused. Official ammunition was found when her home was searched. She is accused of theft and violation of the gun law.
In the penalty orders, the public prosecutor requested fines of 30 to 150 daily rates, but no prison sentences, as a spokeswoman said. If the accused accept the penalty orders, there will be no main hearing.
A total of 25 police officers from the Essen Police Headquarters are being investigated, who are said to have posted pictures, videos and audio files in WhatsApp groups, which contain characteristics of unconstitutional organizations and, in some cases, incitatory content.
The WhatsApp groups had names like “Alphateam” and “Kunta Kinte” – the name of the main actor in the US television series “Roots”, which was about the fate of a boy kidnapped by slave traders. According to the public prosecutor’s office, 45 terabytes of data were evaluated by the Bochum police headquarters – the equivalent of around 292 million document pages.
Although the public prosecutor has closed seven proceedings so far, disciplinary proceedings are still ongoing against the officials, as the State Office for Police Training in North Rhine-Westphalia announced. The suspicion of serious misconduct remains unchanged. The goal remains to remove the 25 involved from the service.
After the scandal was uncovered, six commissioner candidates had already been dismissed in the spring. In the past year, several Whatsapp groups were exposed to the police in Mülheim / Ruhr, in which Hitler pictures or inflammatory content were shared. Mülheim belongs to the area of responsibility of the Essen Police Headquarters.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210706-99-275871 / 3
Source: DPA
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