Dhe man who later murdered Walter Lübcke had been known to the security authorities for decades: Stephan Ernst was a violent right-wing extremist known in northern Hesse, but he had made less of an appearance in the years before the crime. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution therefore rated him as “cooled off”, his personnel file was blocked by the Hessian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV) in 2015 for data protection reasons, seriously taken out of sight. Under the radar, he could radicalize himself. An investigative committee of the Hessian state parliament has been dealing with how this misjudgment came about for more than two years.
The testimony of a former employee of the LfV before the committee had recently fueled further doubts about the agency’s actions. At the beginning of July, witness R. said that she had written a note clearly warning that Ernst was violent. If he really existed, that would mean that the LfV ignored Ernst despite hints.
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