The chat group, in which members of the Frankfurt Special Operations Command (SEK) are said to have sent inflammatory content, apparently had more members than was previously known. This emerges from the remarks made by Hesse's Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU), who had to answer questions from the members of the interior committee of the Hessian state parliament in a special session on Tuesday evening. Accordingly, when evaluating the electronic data of a 38-year-old former SEK official from Rhineland-Palatinate, numerous other chat participants were identified. In total, Beuth spoke of 56 chat group members, but 24 of them are not being investigated under criminal law or disciplinary measures. There are no allegations against these participants. On the question of the Left MP Hermann Schaus,Beuth replied evasively whether these participants were not being investigated simply because they had not actively participated in the chats. Apparently this larger group is predominantly police officers from Hesse, only seven of the 56 are not police officers, according to Beuth. He did not provide any details about these seven people.
The investigators had seized several thousand files, photos and videos from the thirty-eight-year-old on various data carriers such as cell phones, laptops and USB sticks.
A total of 1,800 messages were evaluated.
In the chat group, police officers from several police headquarters and also from the state police headquarters were represented.
The SPD parliamentary group leader Nancy Faeser spoke of a dimension that was previously unknown, because so far most of the suspects have been officials of the Frankfurt SEK.
In the racially motivated terrorist attack in Hanau on February 19, 2020, 38 SEK officers were on duty.
According to Beuth, there were also 13 SEK members who are now affected by the allegations.
Sonderkommando disbanded
The Hessian police are again in the public eye, because last week it became known that 18 active and two former police officers of the Frankfurt SEK elite troops had been chatting for at least two years, sending messages with inciting content and sharing unconstitutional symbols with each other should. On Wednesday morning, the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office searched the homes and offices of six suspects. Frankfurt's police chief Gerhard Bereswill had originally spoken of 20 suspects and Beuth had not communicated any other figures at the time. On Friday it was announced that the number of suspects had increased, as confirmed by the public prosecutor. Two of the suspects are said to be working in the Hesse State Criminal Police Office,two more in the Frankfurt police headquarters. Five other officials are being investigated because they are said to have exchanged duty rosters internally. Beuth announced on Monday that the SEK would be dissolved. The officers who are not being investigated are placed under the riot police in Wiesbaden.