crime
LKA: 17-year-old turns himself in after attack on SPD politician
An election poster of Saxony’s SPD top candidate for the European elections, Matthias Ecke, hangs on a lamppost on Schandauer Strasse in the Striesen district. photo
© Robert Michael/dpa
A teenager claims to have knocked down European MP Ecke in Dresden. He is not in custody.
A 17-year-old turned himself in on Sunday night because of the attack SPD MEP Matthias Ecke was handed over to the police. The teenager reported to the Dresden-Süd police station around 1 a.m. and said that he was the perpetrator who knocked down the SPD politician, as the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) announced. He has not yet appeared to the police. He is not in custody because it cannot be assumed that he will go into hiding, said a spokeswoman for the LKA. Further investigations would show whether the 17-year-old’s statement was correct. The three other suspects remain unknown. The investigation is ongoing.
Ecke is the Saxon SPD’s leading candidate for the European elections. The 41-year-old was beaten up by four young men while hanging up election posters in Dresden on Friday evening. He has been in hospital ever since and needs surgery. Shortly before, according to police, the same group had allegedly attacked and injured a 28-year-old Green Party campaign worker nearby.
According to police information on Saturday, the four young men are estimated to be between 17 and 20 years old. According to witnesses, they were dressed in dark clothing, a police spokesman said. A witness assigned her to the right-wing spectrum.