Germany: Verfassungsschutz role endangers NPD prosecution
01 August 2004
After the constitutional test trial initiated by the German government against the far-right NPD (
Nationalsozialistische Partei Deutschlands) failed because the constitutional court found a prominent role of secret service informants in the party's leadership (see
Statewatch Vol 12 nos 1 & 3), a second court case against violent far-right activists is in danger of collapsing because of a secret service informant's involvement in the planning of racist and anti-Semitic attacks.
Last year, chief public prosecutor Kay Nehm initiated proceedings against the neo-nazi Martin Wiese and 13 members of the Munich based
Kameradschaft Süd ("Comradeship South", which is known for its violent attacks on foreigners) for membership of a terrorist organisation. The police found 14 kg of explosives in a raid, which the group planned to use in a bomb attack on a Jewish community centre and synagogue in Munich (see
Statewatch Vol 13 no 5).
It soon became known that police and secret service agencies had been unaware of the extent of the weapons trading and plans for large-scale attacks, despite their surveillance of Wiese and the organisation. However, it has now surfaced that a member of the group who was close to Wiese was an informant for Germany's secret service (
Verfassungsschutz) and this is endangering Wiese's prosecution. According to Wiese's defence lawyer Anja Seul, the informant Didier Magnien, who was the leader of the far-right
Parti Nationaliste Française et Européenne in 1997, played a central part in planning the attacks, buying weapons and explosives and "inspiring" Wiese and therefore the whole group.
Whilst undoubtedly being used in the defence's strategy, the active involvement of Magnien in the
Kameradschaft Süd is not denied, with regional interior minister Günther Beckstein (
Christlich Soziale Union Deutschlands) admitting that the secret service had to order Magnien to stop helping the group to obtain weapons. On 3 March this year, Marcel K. and Steven Z. were sentenced to one year and nine months and nine months on probation respectively for providing pistols, explosives and hand grenades to the far-right group.
The Bavarian interior ministry, however, insists that Magnien's involvement in the far-right scene was necessary. In relation to his so-called anti-anti-fascist activities (collecting personal details of left-wing activists and publicising them for targeting by far-right groups), Beckstein commented that Magnien's activities had given him access to the
Kameradschaft Süd, arguing that an informant was after all someone who had to "swim in the scene". The authorities have never informed the left-wing groups and individuals whose data has been collected and spread by the group around Wiener nor about the possible danger.
According to Paula Schreibe, a member of the alternative legal support organisation
Rote Hilfe, these "left-wing targets" have not been contacted, despite the fact that the
Kameradschaft Süd is now operating under another name (
Aktionsbüro Süd). She believes that the publication of the extent of secret service involvement in the far-right scene would "endanger the criminal activities of the secret services"
Jungle World 4.8.04