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German police scandal over Libya | German police scandal over Libya |
(about 10 hours later) | |
Eight German police commandos are under investigation for allegedly having trained Libyan police for profit in their spare time. | Eight German police commandos are under investigation for allegedly having trained Libyan police for profit in their spare time. |
"The behaviour of the police officers is completely unacceptable," said Ingo Wolf, interior minister in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. | "The behaviour of the police officers is completely unacceptable," said Ingo Wolf, interior minister in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. |
German media say the elite commandos allegedly worked for a private firm and flew to Libya in 2006 to train police. | |
Libya's leader Col Muammar Gaddafi rejected terrorism in 2003. | Libya's leader Col Muammar Gaddafi rejected terrorism in 2003. |
Col Gaddafi also agreed to dismantle the country's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes. | Col Gaddafi also agreed to dismantle the country's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes. |
Since then Libya's relations with Western powers have improved dramatically. | Since then Libya's relations with Western powers have improved dramatically. |
The commando training programmes were illegal and the German officers did not inform their superiors about their activities in Libya. | |
According to a German government spokesman, the officers have been removed from Germany's elite SEK commando force, the BBC's Tristana Moore reports. | |
Private security firm | |
Prosecutors in Duesseldorf are investigating one of the men, a 48 year-old former SEK officer, over allegations that he trained Libyan police from 2005 to 2007. He is facing charges of violating secrecy guidelines. | |
If these mission tactics are getting into the wrong hands, that's a real danger to colleagues Frank RichterGerman police union GdP | |
According to German media reports, SEK members were hired by a private security firm two years ago, believed to have been set up by a former member of Germany's GSG-9 anti-terrorism unit. | |
It is alleged that up to 30 German officers, from Cologne, Essen and Bielefeld, flew to Libya while on leave, in order to train Libyan security forces in anti-terror techniques. | |
They were reportedly paid up to 15,000 euros (£12,000; $24,000) each in return for the training programmes - some allegedly were rewarded with paid holidays in Tunisia. | |
On Friday, a spokesman for the federal interior ministry in Berlin could only confirm that no current member of the GSG-9 unit was involved in the investigation. | |
Details of the training have not been revealed, but the authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed that they had known about the allegations since the summer of 2007, after receiving a tip-off from the regional criminal police office (LKA). | |
The German defence ministry has also confirmed that a military police officer in Berlin has been suspended from duty over allegations that he helped organise the training of Libyan security forces in his spare time. | |
German opposition politicians have called for an immediate parliamentary inquiry and the affair has provoked outrage among police unions, our correspondent reports. | |
"These are colleagues with the highest training standard worldwide, who are very professional and are being deployed on extremely dangerous missions: in terrorism, in organised crime," said Frank Richter from the German police union, the GdP. | |
"If these mission tactics are getting into the wrong hands, that's a real danger to colleagues in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the whole of Germany, and to officers on foreign missions," he said. |
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