29 German police suspended
BERLIN (AP) — Authorities in western Germany have suspended 29 police officers suspected of sharing far-right propaganda in WhatsApp groups, at least two of which were active for several years, a top security official said Wednesday.
Investigators searched 34 locations, including police stations and private apartments in the Ruhr industrial region, said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state.
The material that was shared included “the most foul and repugnant neo-Nazi, racist and anti-refugee agitation,” said Reul, who added that the case left him “speechless.”
The offending images included pictures of Adolf Hitler and swastikas, a fictional depiction of a refugee in the gas chamber of a concentration camp and another mocking the shooting of Black people, Reul added.