NRW policewoman suspended after raid How many NRW police officers are suspected of being Reich citizens
Düsseldorf · Following a series of raids across Germany on Wednesday morning, disciplinary proceedings are being considered against an NRW police officer. She is not the first member of the NRW police force to be accused of having links to Reich citizens.
Further disciplinary steps are being examined against the police officer from Minden-Lübbecke who was suspended following the nationwide raid on the Reich citizens' milieu. "The initiation of disciplinary proceedings against the officer is being examined. She is currently not on duty," said the NRW Ministry of the Interior in response to an inquiry. According to information our editorial staff has obtained from security circles, her apartment and parts of her workplace had been searched. The policewoman, who has not been arrested, is said to work for the Criminal Investigation Department, but not in a senior position.
Since 2016, the NRW Ministry of the Interior has been aware of a total of five police officers who have attracted attention on suspicion of belonging to the Reich Citizens' Movement.
"In four cases, however, there is not yet a legally binding decision by the administrative court. In one case, the civil servant was legally removed from service by a ruling of the administrative court," the NRW Interior Ministry said.
How the NRW Ministry of the Interior is responding
In order to prevent and identify extremist structures within the police, the Ministry of the Interior says it has established new structures. "This includes the consistent implementation of the recommendations for action made by the special department that handles right-wing extremist tendencies in the police. We will continue to adhere to this approach," explains a spokesperson.
If, according to the Ministry of the Interior, members of the public service in North Rhine-Westphalia are suspected of belonging to the “Reichsbürger” movement, the supervising authorities are required to take action, exhausting all legal options from suspension of duty to dismissal, "since the ideology of the Reichsbürger is not compatible with the duty of members of the public service to stand up for the free democratic fundamental order.”
What happened in the raid on Wednesday
The Federal Prosecutor's Office had 25 people arrested on Wednesday in one of the largest police operations in the history of the Federal Republic in eleven German states as well as in Italy and Austria. They accuse 22 of them of being members of a terrorist organization that want to overthrow the German political system. The other three are accused of providing support. In NRW, apart from the policewoman, the police only searched the apartment of another woman in Krefeld, who is listed as a witness.
(Original text: Christian Schwerdtfeger / Translation: Carol Kloeppel)
