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Thursday April 18, 2024

Germany stages country-wide raids against ‘neo-Nazi networks’

By AFP
April 07, 2022

BERLIN: Investigators swooped on alleged neo-Nazi militant cells across Germany on Wednesday and arrested four suspects as the country pursues a forceful crackdown on far-right extremists.

In what Der Spiegel magazine called "the biggest blow against the militant neo-Nazi scene in the recent past", the federal prosecutor’s office said more than 1,000 officers raided the homes of 50 suspects in 11 states. "The four men arrested are accused of membership of a right-wing extremist criminal organisation," it said in a statement, as well as charges including grievous bodily harm.

Germany’s centre-left-led government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz took office in December pledging a decisive fight against far-right militants after criticism that the previous administration had been lax on neo-Nazi violence.