German neo-Nazi suspect faces court for death threats

BERLIN (AA) – The trial of a German neo-Nazi charged with sending dozens of death threats to politicians and lawyers started in a Frankfurt court on Wednesday even as questions persist over a possible larger threat that has escaped scrutiny.

Alexander Horst M., 54, sent more than a hundred emails signed with the neo-Nazi alias “NSU 2.0” – referring to the National Socialist Underground (NSU) – between 2018 and 2021, prosecutors said in their indictment.

Germany’s social democrat Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, cabaret entertainer Idil Baydar, and prominent lawyer Seda Basay-Yildiz were among those targeted by death threats.

Basay-Yildiz represented families of the Turkish victims killed by the NSU, a neo-Nazi terror group, and received numerous threats from right-wing extremists.

The accused was arrested in Berlin last year after a long investigation, but the police could not determine how the suspect obtained non-public personal information of the prominent politicians and lawyers.

Basay-Yildiz and five other prominent figures targeted by hate messages have said in a joint statement that the assumption of a “single perpetrator” is not plausible. They demanded a wider investigation to reveal the neo-Nazi suspect’s possible contacts within the police, who helped him access official records.

The shadowy NSU group killed eight Turkish immigrants, a Greek citizen, and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007, but the murders remained long unsolved.