Exclusive
Status: 07/11/2021 6:00 p.m.
The cookbook author Attila Hildmann is said to still be abroad. The Berlin judiciary is looking for him with an arrest warrant – and throws him for information from WDR and SZ.
Now it’s a pizzeria. Recently there was a fast food snack bar for vegan food in the small shop in Berlin-Charlottenburg. There were burgers with fried eggplant, smoked tofu and beetroot chips. A lettering on the awning reminded of the previous restaurateur: “Attila Hildmann”. In the meantime the name has been taped off.
The cookbook author and former snack bar operator Hildmann is said to be abroad, probably in Turkey. The public prosecutor’s office in Berlin has been investigating him for some time. He is now being wanted with an arrest warrant.
The allegations against Hildmann include: insults, threats and sedition. Hildmann is considered a spokesman for the ideological conspiracy scene of corona deniers. He is said to have spread anti-Semitic, racist and right-wing extremist agitation almost daily via Telegram channels.
Apparently anti-Semitic documents discovered
According to research by WDR and Süddeutscher Zeitung, the Berlin judiciary is now assuming more than 80 crimes that Hildmann could be charged with. This means that the number has increased again. Among other things, four cell phones are said to have been evaluated in the meantime. The investigators are said to have come across numerous saved anti-Semitic photos and texts.
The Berlin public prosecutor’s office took over the case against Hildmann from the Brandenburg judiciary last year. Several cell phones and six laptops were confiscated in November 2020 when the cookbook author’s residence in Wandlitz, Brandenburg, was approached. The electronic data carriers are said not to have been fully evaluated even months later. Parts of the hard drives are apparently encrypted.
A mole in the judiciary?
In February, the Berlin public prosecutor finally obtained an arrest warrant against Hildmann. He had not been found at his place of residence for weeks. The conspiracy ideologist is said to have been informed about the arrest warrant at an early stage, which is why the public prosecutor’s office is also investigating the question of whether this information had been leaked from the judiciary.
According to the Berlin investigators, Hildmann is said to have fled abroad by the end of December 2020. He is said to have entered Turkey by car. Since he has both German and Turkish citizenship, extradition to the Federal Republic is unlikely.
In Berlin, the press chamber of the regional court is currently dealing with Hildmann. The Green politician Volker Beck wants to enforce a civil law injunction against the corona denier. Hildmann had reviled Beck several times and declared that the Greens would face the death penalty if he were “Chancellor”. On August 4, the court will continue to hear whether Hildmann will face a fine if he makes such statements again.
Telegram channels surprisingly blocked
At the beginning of June, two Hildmann channels on the Telegram messenger service were surprisingly blocked. They can no longer be reached via iPhones and Android smartphones. Hildmann recently had more than 100,000 subscribers there, and published daily conspiracy myths about the corona pandemic as well as about vaccines and widespread anti-Semitic agitation. It is unclear who blocked the cookbook author’s channels.
Google explained that they do not block individual channels, only apps if they violate guidelines. Apple did not want to officially comment on the blocking. In the guidelines for the apps that are offered in the App Store, it is stated, however, that “offensive content” is not permitted. It is therefore also conceivable that Telegram itself blocked Hildmann’s channels, but this is considered unlikely. Because other profiles that distribute similar content are still active.