In February, an arrest warrant was issued against Hildmann – because of the risk of fleeing.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Attila Hildmann knew that the public prosecutor was after him, that something was coming. Too much had accrued to the cookbook author and former vegan star in the judiciary and police. How much – the right-wing extremist apparently knew exactly.
Because he is said to have had a spy at the public prosecutor’s office, which has been investigating him since 2020, for example because of sedition, resistance to law enforcement officers and threats. Because he incited Telegram at corona demonstrations and in his chat channel, wishing politicians dead and spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy ideas.
The 32-year-old Efstathia M. is said to have informed him. She was an employee of the IT department and system administrator at the public prosecutor’s office. First, Spiegel and ARD reported on it, the public prosecutor’s office confirmed the information. The investigators had been looking for a leak in the judiciary anyway.
In February, an arrest warrant was issued against Hildmann – because of the risk of fleeing. He had long since left for Turkey and boasted that he had been informed of the arrest warrant. At the time, only a few people in the judiciary knew about it.
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The public prosecutor’s office got on the trail of the employee because the police reportedly noticed M. several times, for example in the vicinity of an activist in the lateral thinker scene. She is also said to have marched in the front row in lateral thinker demos.
Hildmann is said to have received data
When the woman was identified, prosecutors checked what data she had retrieved in May. According to the investigators, she is said to have accessed documents relating to the investigation against Hildmann, but also to data from Nikolai Nerling, a right-wing extremist and video blogger known as a “people’s teacher”.
Attila Hildmann had an informant at the Berlin public prosecutor’s office
And M. is said to have given Hildmann dates. He received information as early as November 2020. After that, in December, Hildmann deliberately went to Turkey to evade justice. According to all the information available to him at that time – presumably also through M. – he had expected his arrest.
M. is said to have visited Hildmann in Turkey at the beginning of the year and given him the arrest warrant. You have given him “only retrospectively certainty about the actual existence of an arrest warrant,” said the spokesman.
During the investigation, however, “there were unauthorized inquiries about various people from the right-wing extremist and the lateral thinker scene. In July, the woman’s apartment in Berlin was searched and data carriers were seized. They are being investigated on suspicion of breach of official secrecy and attempted thwarting of punishment. And M. was given notice without notice.
Parts of the lateral thinking movement can also be found in the judiciary
A senior judge was not very surprised by the case. The proportion of people who are closer to lateral thinkers and other conspiracy-theoretical groups is no smaller in the judiciary than in the rest of society. She recalled a case in which a public prosecutor had participated in sometimes violent protests by the lateral thinking movement and had spread conspiracy theories online.
Hildmann responded to Telegram on Monday. “I was safe in the sun for a long time when an alleged ‘informant’ passed something to me!” He boasted. “Every day BRD employees send me information, this is not an isolated case!” The judiciary wants to draw conclusions. It should be recorded more precisely who is accessing what and how data can be better protected in sensitive processes.
This text first appeared in the Tagesspiegel
More: Berlin judiciary investigates in its own ranks – information given to Attila Hildmann