The right-wing conspiracy narrator Attila Hildmann, who is wanted with an arrest warrant, could be extradited to Germany. Contrary to what was initially assumed by the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, Hildmann only has German citizenship, as spokesman for the authorities Sebastian Büchner said on Tuesday. The “Stern” had previously reported about it.
Since last April, the public prosecutor’s office has assumed that Hildmann only has German citizenship and has initiated further investigations. According to Büchner, this led to the international arrest warrant being amended in June. The search measures had been expanded. Büchner left open whether the federal government has now submitted an extradition request to Turkey.
The public prosecutor’s office has long been investigating Hildmann, who describes himself as “ultra-right” and a conspiracy preacher, for incitement to hatred, suspected public incitement to commit crimes and resistance to law enforcement officials. The former author of vegan cookbooks had been attracting attention on the Internet channel Telegram with his increasingly blatant hatred of Jews since the first months of the corona pandemic. He has been on the run since the end of December 2020 and is hiding in Turkey.
doubts cleared
At first it was said that an arrest warrant against him could not be enforced because Hildmann also had Turkish citizenship. But there were doubts about this, so that the public prosecutor’s office, according to its own statements, turned on the Berlin Senate Administration. The data from the registration and identity card register had not proven to be productive, it said. Neither a Turkish passport nor a Turkish identity card is stored in the population register.
Hildmann was born in West Berlin to Turkish parents but grew up with German adoptive parents. According to the public prosecutor, it cannot be ruled out that the nationality was recorded at the time. When Hildmann applied for an identity card in 2013, he stated that he had acquired Turkish citizenship by birth, Büchner said.
At the time, the identity card authority did not consider any investigation necessary because there were no doubts as to the existence of German citizenship. “Research into the resilience of the Turkish nationality recorded in the population register did not appear necessary because the information provided by the applicant matched the data stored in the population register,” explained the spokesman.
Most recently, last November, headlines were made by the fact that Hildmann is said to have received internal information about investigations against him from a former employee of the Berlin judiciary. The investigations were still ongoing, explained Büchner. Above all, data would have to be evaluated.
star report
