Lots of extremists at large: the number of pending arrest warrants is falling again


Lots of extremists at large
The number of pending arrest warrants is on the decline again

In Germany, significantly more arrest warrants have recently been executed than are issued. This is the first time in years. However, more than 170,000 people are still at large, even though they should have been in custody. In one federal state, the discrepancy is particularly large.

The number of pending arrest warrants in Germany fell significantly for the first time in several years. As of March 31, 2021, 173,407 people were advertised to be wanted. A year earlier there were 192,801 unexecuted arrest warrants. This emerges from a response by the federal government to the request of the Greens in the Bundestag, which is available to the newspapers of the Funke media group. It concerns arrests because of a criminal offense, absenteeism at court or due to arrest, as well as cases of imminent deportations. In some cases, violent extremists are also on wanted lists.

Especially in North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, the number of pending arrest warrants has decreased significantly. In North Rhine-Westphalia from 32,908 to 25,831 cases within one year, in Baden-Württemberg from 21,724 to 12,910 cases. With 32,919 pending arrest warrants, Bavaria has by far the greatest number of people in the police information system to be wanted.

Biggest decline in Baden-Württemberg

The interior expert of the Greens in the Bundestag, Irene Mihalic, told the Funke newspapers: “It is really good that the number of unexecuted arrest warrants has decreased for the first time in years. A good 173,000 is still a high number, but it turns out that that the public pressure to execute arrest warrants has not been without consequences. ” It is not enough to issue arrest warrants if “one lacks the harshness that one would like to exude with it in enforcement,” said Mihalic, referring to the more than 30,000 open arrest warrants in Bavaria. “Bavaria, which is governed by the CSU, really has a massive enforcement problem.”

According to the government response, 602 right-wing extremists are also being wanted on the basis of an unenforced arrest warrant, reports the Funke newspapers. However, they are not always sought because of a political crime. Overall, as of March 31, 2021, arrest warrants for 7,611 politically motivated criminals had not been carried out. A large part, according to the Federal Government in its answer, goes back to searches by foreign authorities, for example with a view to Islamists who are alleged to have fought alongside terrorist groups in Syria.

Green politician Mihalic emphasized: “There are even a handful of right-wing and left-wing extremist threats and relevant people against whom arrest warrants have not been carried out.” Here it is urgently necessary to check whether this “cannot be made up immediately, because we do not know whether they are planning serious criminal offenses that endanger the state”.

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