Despite arrest warrants from the Berlin judiciary, 50 people who attracted attention with right-wing extremist acts are still walking around freely. Two wanted persons even pose a particular threat, two are recorded in the joint file “Violent Offenders Right”, six are classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as violent right-wing extremists. The oldest open arrest warrant for a right-wing act of violence was issued in 2017. This emerges from a response from Interior Secretary Torsten Akmann (SPD) to a request from Left-wing MP Ferat Koçak, which was available to the Tagesspiegel in advance.
There are a total of 58 unenforced arrest warrants against the 50 wanted persons. Although the individuals have already attracted attention with right-wing crimes, only 17 outstanding arrest warrants relate to politically motivated crimes, four of which relate to violent crimes. 41 arrest warrants were issued for other offences, including nine violent offences.
Of the 50 people, 16 were last reported in Berlin, two of whom even had two open arrest warrants. Five of these related to right-wing offences, 13 to other offences, five of which to violent offences. In addition, eight of the 50 wanted persons are abroad, and an international arrest warrant has already been issued against one person – for example for resisting law enforcement officers and inciting hatred. The other seven people are involved in murder, resisting law enforcement officers, extortion, coercion, faking a crime and using unconstitutional organization plates.
Koçak called the numbers startling. “The open arrest warrants against Nazis in Berlin have been processed centrally since 2015, and yet dozens of right-wing criminals are still at large,” Koçak told the Tagesspiegel. “This is a real danger for people with a migration background and people who are active against the right.”
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However, the internal administration also lists how many arrest warrants from the area of right-wing crime have been executed. From 2016 to mid-July 2022 there were 340, in 2021 alone there were 55, this year already 31. In addition, a total of 53 wanted persons have turned themselves in to the authorities since 2016, four have died. However, 46 arrest warrants have also been revoked by the judiciary, and 28 arrest warrants have expired due to the expiration of the time limit.
Koçak said that his trust in the security authorities in the fight against the right is dwindling in view of the statistics. The left-wing politician was the victim of a right-wing extremist arson attack in 2018, the authorities had indications of the attack plans, but they did not thwart them. The two alleged perpetrators, who are the main suspects in the Neukölln attack series, will be tried at the Tiergarten district court from the end of August.
The high number of open arrest warrants against people from the right-wing scene “are part of the failures of the Berlin security authorities in the fight against the right-wing,” said Koçak. He expects the investigative committee of the House of Representatives on the Neukölln complex, which was set up in the spring, to address “the fleeing right-wing criminals” and “the systematic problem of the authorities in the prosecution of right-wing crimes”.