An attack by suspected left-wing extremist violent criminals in Budapest in mid-February led to consequences in Saxony and Thuringia on Wednesday. The state criminal police offices of both Free States had three apartments in Leipzig and five apartments in Jena searched, said the General Prosecutor's Office in Dresden, which is investigating the case with the Central Office for Extremism Saxony.
Stefan Locke
Correspondent for Saxony and Thuringia based in Dresden.
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The prosecutors suspect seven people, all of whom come from Germany, between 9 and 11 February this year "for left-wing extremist motives violent attacks on alleged members of the right-wing scene in Budapest".
Attacks on "Day of Honor"
According to investigators, the accused are four women who are 20 and 22 years old, respectively, and three men aged 21, 26 and 29. They are accused of dangerous bodily injury. On the so-called "Day of Honour", which thousands of neo-Nazis from all over Europe celebrate every year in the Hungarian capital as a reminder of the Battle of Budapest in World War II, they allegedly attacked several people they believed to be participants in the right-wing extremist march. According to the Hungarian police, the perpetrators targeted their victims on the basis of external identification marks such as clothing or boots and then attacked them with lead gloves, hammers and telescopic batons.
The victims are also said to include a Hungarian who was only on his way to work, as well as a German couple who had previously attended a concert. Overall, two German, three Hungarian and three Polish nationals were injured in the attacks, some seriously, the Saxon investigators said.
Immediately after the attacks, the Hungarian police had already arrested four alleged perpetrators, including two Germans, an Italian and a Hungarian. However, they initially denied having anything to do with the deeds.
During the searches on Wednesday, the investigators secured unspecified evidence, which would now be evaluated in cooperation with the Hungarian authorities.
The domestic policy spokesman of the CDU parliamentary group in Thuringia, Raymond Walk, called on the state government to examine a possible connection to attacks on two right-wing extremists in Erfurt. Both people were attacked in January on the street from a group and seriously injured.
At the same time, he spoke out in favour of the use of intelligence services and informants for reconnaissance in the left-wing extremist scene. "The fact that executive measures of other federal states are already being carried out once again in Thuringia shows how supra-regionally networked the violent extremist scene is."