After the attack with an unknown liquid on a resident in Rostock-Lichtenhagen, the state security took over the investigation. There is a suspicion of a politically motivated crime and dangerous bodily harm, said a police spokesman in Rostock on Monday.
The background is that about four and a half hours before the attack, a picture of the victim was published on the Twitter account of the anti-fascist group Alerta Berlin. There it had been claimed that this man had given a Hitler salute during a demonstration in Lichtenhagen on Saturday. However, this cannot be seen exactly on the eight-second video sequence.
The 25-year-old man was splashed with a previously unknown liquid during the attack on Saturday evening, which caused severe burning and reddening of the skin. According to the police, hooded perpetrators had knocked on the victim’s apartment window on the ground floor. When the resident opened the window, he was sprayed with the liquid – which is said to have smelled of chili or Tabasco sauce – on his face and bare upper body. The perpetrators fled, the man came to a clinic, which he was able to leave again on Sunday.
Thousands of people gathered in Rostock-Lichtenhagen on Saturday to commemorate the racist attacks in the district 30 years ago.
During the demonstration, the anti-fascist Twitter account Alerta Berlin published footage of the victim’s apartment – a man is said to have given the Hitler salute from the ground floor window. The police are now not only determining whether there is a connection between the recordings and the crime, but also whether someone actually gave the Hitler salute during the commemoration event.
When asked by epd, a police spokesman confirmed that the man seen was the later attack victim and that the apartment was the crime scene. The spokesman pointed out that neither the photo nor the video showed a Hitler salute. Nevertheless, he spoke of an initial suspicion that the police were investigating.
In Rostock-Lichtenhagen 30 years ago, a mob of right-wing extremists and rioters tried for days to storm the accommodations of foreigners, to the applause of onlookers. 150 people were in mortal danger after the home of the former Vietnamese GDR contract workers was set on fire. More than 200 police officers were injured, one seriously. The pictures went around the world and caused horror.
In the past few days, the events have been commemorated. On Saturday there was a demonstration against racism through Lichtenhagen, according to the police 3600 people took part. The event was therefore peaceful.
In 1992, hundreds of right-wing extremists in Rostock’s Lichtenhagen district attacked a block of flats with stones and Molotov cocktails that housed a hostel for asylum seekers and a dormitory for former Vietnamese contract workers. Thousands of residents applauded, the police were overwhelmed.
Source: WORLD / Max Seib