GERMANY: German police file charges against far-right leader after the attack on eight Indian men in Muegeln

German police have charged the leader of a leading far-right political party with inciting racial hatred after he recommended Adolf Hitler's former deputy for the Nobel peace prize. Police in the eastern city of Jena said on Friday (August 24) they had filed the charge against Udo Voigt, head of the National Democratic Party (NPD), after he proposed the late Rudolf Hess for the prestigious award during a speech last weekend. If convicted of incitement, Voigt could face a jail term of up to three years or a fine, police said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned on Friday the Muegeln attack, which has prompted a fresh round of soul-searching in Germany about far-right violence, and renewed calls for action against it. "We must not lean towards - even though I know that many people want a ban of the NPD party - we not must lean towards losing sight of the rest and the fight against racism has to take place on a broad front," she said, "I will wait what the interior ministers (of the states) suggest, but I regard the process from last time as rather difficult." The NPD has no seats in Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, but is represented in the legislatures of two eastern states, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Far-right attacks have been a recurring problem in the poorer eastern states of Germany since reunification in 1990. "And the German government is very clear about the issue, these were terrible events and we feel obliged to act."

ITN Source | August 25, 2007

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