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Berlin / Calw (dpa) - Because of the ammunition affair at the Special Forces Command (KSK), military police have seized the official communication equipment of the commander, Brigadier General Markus Kreitmayr.

The police are thus implementing a request for administrative assistance from the Tübingen public prosecutor's office that was sent on Friday.

After a hearing in the Defense Committee of the Bundestag, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) said on Monday that her ministry had supported these measures by the judicial authorities.

According to information from the German Press Agency, Bundeswehr experts and the Baden-Württemberg State Office of Criminal Investigation evaluated the general's service cellphone and tablet.

The military department CERTBw, the Bundeswehr's Computer Emergency Response Team, is also involved.

In spring 2020, according to the Ministry of Defense, there was a collection campaign for ammunition at the KSK location in Calw in Baden-Württemberg.

Soldiers were therefore able to return ammunition with impunity that had not previously been handed in after target practice or that had been stolen.

Kreitmayr is said to have ordered the action.

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The public prosecutor's office in Tübingen is investigating the initial suspicion of a violation of Section 40 of the Military Penal Act, as the Chief Public Prosecutor Matthias Grundke had declared at the beginning of April.

This is comparable to the criminal offense of obstruction of punishment.

Kreitmayr is considered innocent until the proceedings have been legally concluded.

So far, he has only commented on the matter internally, but not publicly.

The FDP further doubted on Monday that the minister knew nothing about the ammunition collection campaign.

Defense politician Annegret Strack-Zimmermann demanded access to the records of the minister's adjutant as well as so-called speech slips, which must be available in the ministry's management staff, as she said.

The ministry refused, according to participants in the meeting.

The FDP wants to entrust the Armed Forces Commissioner Eva Högl with dealing with the scandals in the special forces command of the Bundeswehr.

With an order from the Defense Committee, Högl, as a special investigator and supervisory authority, could investigate allegations beyond the end of the legislative period, said Strack-Zimmermann.

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Högl spoke of a misleading approach by the FDP.

«The KSK is currently the subject of the committee's own deliberations.

This leads to a blocking effect.

The Armed Forces Commissioner can only take action if the committee does not deal with the issue itself, ”she said.

Only the Defense Committee as a whole was able to instruct the Armed Forces Commissioner to examine certain processes.

This is also not the role of a special investigator who can be used within the framework of investigative committees.

The left-wing politician Tobias Pflüger said the problems with the KSK are bigger than previously thought.

He also referred to a controversial award practice.

"The extent of the illegal awarding of contracts by the KSK to external companies is far greater than previously assumed," he said.

The Ministry of Defense granted direct awards of around 650,000 euros to the KSK in the years 2014 to 2018.

"This financial dimension is terrifying," said Pflüger.

Tobias Lindner (Greens) criticized that the ministry was not interested in clarification.

Rüdiger Lucassen (AfD) said that the AfD parliamentary group calls for special forces that are ready for action and capable of fighting.

But the minister achieved the opposite.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210503-99-452892 / 3