Police and prosecutors have arrested a 31-year-old from Hamburg who is said to have spread the symbol "Z" on social media several times and thus supported the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, who also operated a "national-Bolshevik" Telegram channel and in a photo is said to have posed with an AK-47 assault rifle. Whether the gun was real is still being checked.
The case against the German relates to the suspicion of violating the War Weapons Control Act, attempted recruitment for foreign military service and the approval of criminal offenses, the leading public prosecutor's office in Hamburg announced on Thursday. The man wanted to travel to Belarus in mid-August this year, it said. The investigations are based in particular on findings from the Hamburg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The 31-year-old was visited in the morning by prosecutors from the central office for state security and investigators from the state security department of the State Criminal Police Office in Hamburg in his apartment in the Kirchwerder district.
"According to previous investigations, the accused was responsible for the Telegram channel 'The Other Germany', which saw itself as a pro-Russian national-Bolshevik platform on which sympathy for the war of aggression initiated by Russia against Ukraine was openly expressed," said police spokeswoman Nina Kaluza.
In this context, the 31-year-old is strongly suspected of having "supported the Russian war of aggression in at least four cases by using the symbol 'Z' in a clear context and thus approved a criminal offense under the International Criminal Code," said the spokeswoman. "In addition, there is a strong suspicion against him in six other cases of having spread the 'Z' symbol in the same way using the Facebook and VK.com accounts he uses," it said.
It has not yet been clarified whether the AK-47, which could be seen in a photo, is a real weapon that would be subject to the War Weapons Control Act and is "the subject of ongoing investigations". According to current knowledge, the man wanted to leave for the Belarusian capital of Minsk on August 18.
During the search, "various data carriers", several knives and other objects were secured, "their criminal relevance is being checked," said the spokeswoman. "So far, no AK-47 assault rifle has been secured."
