German intel ‘knew’ Nazi linkages of suspect

BERLIN

Germany’s military intelligence agency said it knew of a murder suspect’s far-right links years before he joined a neo-Nazi cell that killed 10 people, including eight Turkish immigrants.

The revelation on Aug. 11 in Parliament highlights how security services compiled information about members of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) long before their alleged seven-year murder spree that began in 2000, The Associated Press reported.

The Military Counterintelligence Service said it passed information on Uwe Mundlos to other security services in 1995, but then destroyed its own files after he completed obligatory military service.

Mundlos was found dead in November alongside a second suspected NSU member, Uwe Boenhard, after an apparent murder-suicide following a botched bank robbery.

The third alleged cell member, Beate Zschaepe, is in custody pending trial.

Meanwhile, Ulrich Birkenheier, president of the German Military Counter-Intellgence Service (MAD), testified to the Bundestag investigation commission in the ongoing NSU murder series hearings on Sept. 11 in Berlin, Anatolia news agency reported.