Neo-Nazi arrest
December 11, 2011
A special police squad has arrested another person in connection with a neo-Nazi terror cell based in the eastern German city of Zwickau.
The German Public Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe said the man, 36-year-old Matthias D., was detained in the Erzgebirge district of Saxony, also in eastern Germany.
It said D. was "under definite suspicion of having supported the terrorist organization National Socialist Underground (NSU) on two counts."
In a statement, the Public Prosecutor's Office said he was "suspected of providing two flats in Zwickau to the members of the NSU as permanent accommodation."
Officers from the German Federal Criminal Police Office and Saxon police force have also searched three apartments, including that of the accused and of a woman suspected of assisting the neo-Nazi group.
Additional allegations
Several other people suspected of having links to the group are already in custody, including its suspected co-founder, Beate Z.
The NSU is allegedly responsible for 10 murders committed between 2000 and 2007, most of which are believed to have had racist motives.
Authorities are also investigating suspected connections to several unsolved crimes, including attacks in the western cities of Cologne and Dusseldorf from 2000 to 2004, as well as a number of bank robberies.
Far-right party under new scrutiny
The case has triggered a second bid to have the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) banned.
A previous attempt in 2003 failed when witnesses were exposed as informers for German intelligence agencies.
The NPD has condemned the crimes, but is described by the domestic intelligence service as being inspired by Nazism.
Author: Timothy Jones (dapd, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Sean Sinico
Editor's note: Deutsche Welle is bound by German law and the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and obliges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.