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Embassy staff suspected of taking bribes

Following the arrest of a German diplomat last month, prosecutors are now investigating other allegations that employees at numerous German embassies sold visas for bribes.

Published: 11 June 2011 10:58 CEST
Embassy staff suspected of taking bribes
Image source: DPA

A diplomat was arrested on May 21 on suspicion of selling visas for Germany to people from Afghanistan. The 40-year old had been head of Germany’s visa office in the Gulf state of Dubai.

Investigators are now also looking at some 20 different cases in embassies and consulates in 12 different countries, although they say that there is no indication yet that these cases are related to that of the diplomat.

According to Der Spiegel magazine, for the past four years the career diplomat had allegedly been issuing visas to Afghan citizens, based on fake documents provided by a company based in the Emirates. Dubai airport is an important transit stop for Afghans who want to travel to Europe.

The price for each visa was up to $3,000 in cash. The man was arrested while on leave in Berlin and his alleged client, an Afghan business man, was arrested in Hamburg.

The Berlin State Prosecutors Office has confirmed that they are now looking into 20 cases relating to the issuing of visas. The charges are bribery, corruption and human trafficking.

There are thought to have been irregularities at German diplomatic missions in 12 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Egypt, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

A spokesperson for the prosecutors said that there were dozens of suspects, most of whom were locally employed workers at German embassies and consulates.

The Local/DPA/smd

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CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Published: 13 September 2024 11:17 CEST
Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

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