German military identifies dozens of extremists within ranks

Source
Xinhuanet
Editor
Li Jiayao
Time
2018-05-26 20:03:45

BERLIN, May 26 (Xinhua) -- German military has identified 89 far-right extremists and 24 "Islamists" within its ranks since 2011, the Funke Media group reported on Saturday.

Of these cases, 67 were from the period prior to the suspension of compulsory military service as of July 1, 2011.

Of the confirmed cases, 86 were members of the German military, or known as Bundeswehr. The three remaining soldiers were currently running judicial and disciplinary court proceedings, according to the Funke Media group.

According to the report, 15 members of the German military were classified as left-wing extremists from 2008 to 2018, since 2011 there was only one case. It was also reported that there have been over 300 suspected cases of "Islamism" in the Bundeswehr since 2011, of which 200 were not confirmed.

In 24 cases, the relatives were therefore classified as "Islamist".

But the German Military Counterintelligence Service's (MAD) told the Funke Media group that both the number of suspected cases and the number of identified extremists had dropped significantly since 2011.

The number of suspected cases of right-wing extremism have halved to an average of 300 per year, according to Defense Ministry report.

 

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