The letters were also signed with the name of a family from Osnabrück. However, the police quickly found out that her name had been misused and that the family had not written the letters themselves. As investigators have now announced, the alleged perpetrator had a business dispute with one of the family members in 2016. At that time he suffered financial loss. Writing letters is “thus a relationship act in a very special way.”
In 2017 and since 2020, threatening and insulting letters were sent, affecting facilities in the federal states of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Lower Saxony. After evaluating the evidence and questioning witnesses, one person repeatedly came into focus, it said. The investigating state security and the public prosecutor’s office, with the support of the postal service, then increasingly included the mail distribution channels in the investigation.
The suspect’s apartment in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, was finally searched on Thursday. “Extensive, very incriminating evidence” was confiscated there. The 50-year-old then confessed to all the crimes. According to the current state of the investigation, he acted alone. He is being investigated for libel and slander as well as the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations and a violation of the Art Copyright Act.
State Interior Minister Behrens explained: “The unspeakable threatening letters, which were signed with the right-wing extremist abbreviation ‘NSU 2.0’, have fueled a lot of uncertainty and fear among the people, institutions and religious communities affected in recent months.” In addition, the alleged authors should have been “specifically discredited”.
Osnabrück police chief Michael Maßmann said the letters had “caused great suffering.” As a police force, “in a defensive democracy, we take consistent action in the event of such behavior.”
