German Spy Chief Resigns Over Neo-Nazi Terrorist Investigation
The president of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has resigned in response to a series of errors made in the investigation of a neo-Nazi terror cell. Criticism grew last week after it emerged that his office had shredded important documents relating to the case.
The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service, Heinz Fromm, resigned on Monday following the emergence of a series of errors in the investigation into neo-Nazi terrorists who killed 10 people and eluded authorities for over a decade.
SPIEGEL ONLINE learned that he had tendered his resgination to Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, who accepted it on Monday morning.
Germany’s security services including Fromm’s authority, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, have come under fire for their handling of the probe into the National Socialist Underground (NSU) terrorist organization, also known as the Zwickau cell because they were based in that city, which came to light by chance last November following a botched bank robbery.
The trio that made up the NSU, aided by a web of helpers, shot dead nine small businessmen of Turkish and Greek origin and one German policewoman in a killing spree that began in 2000. They also injured more than 20 people in two bomb attacks on people of Turkish descent and committed over a dozen bank robberies.
Authorities including the police have had to admit that their investigations were hampered by a lack of coordination, and that they made crucial mistakes. Criticism intensified following the discovery last week that Fromm’s agency shredded files relating to the NSU.