ZCZC
BFF-19
GERMANY-POLITICS-EXTREMISM
Germany’s only black MP reveals death threats
BERLIN, Jan 24, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Germany’s only black MP said this week
he had received death threats from right-wing extremists days after finding
holes probably made by a pellet gun in his constituency office window.
Karamba Diaby, a lawmaker for the centre-left Social Democratic Party
(SPD), told German media that he had received the anonymous threat by email,
which was reportedly signed with the words “Sieg Heil” and “Heil Hitler”.
“I am taking the threat very seriously and have informed the police
immediately,” Diaby told the DPA news agency on Thursday.
“Investigations have been started without delay and measures have been
taken to protect me.”
The threat comes just days after Diaby tweeted a picture of three holes in
his office window, which investigators believe were made by plastic pellets
shot from an “airsoft” gun.
Regional newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung said they had also received a
copy of the threatening e-mail.
The newspaper reported that it was signed by a group calling themselves
the “coup d’etat orchestra”, and made reference to the recent killing of
conservative politician Walter Luebcke.
Luebcke, an advocate of a liberal refugee policy, was shot at his home
last June. The primary suspect in the murder is a neo-Nazi named Stephan
Ernst.
Diaby, 58, was born in Senegal but moved to the former communist East
Germany in the late 1980s to study chemistry.
In a 2017 interview with AFP, he recalled experiencing racism both before
and after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification in 1989-90,
suffering a beating from neo-Nazis in 1991.
Elected in 2013, he represents a constituency in the eastern state of
Saxony-Anhalt, a region where the far-right AfD party enjoys widespread
support.
The threats against him come amid a growing wave of aggression towards
politicians in Germany.
Last year, police recorded 1,241 politically motivated crimes against
elected officials of all stripes.
Three mayors have resigned in recent months after death threats and
attacks on their cars.
Another mayor has made headlines in recent days after applying for a
licence to carry a weapon in self-defence.
Politicians from the conservative CDU and the Green Party have also
received death threats from right-wing extremists in recent months.
BSS/AFP/RY/1644 hrs