Matthias Ecke attacked – 17-year-old turns himself in to the police

The police in Dresden have identified a suspect after the attack on SPD European politician Matthias Ecke. A 17-year-old turned himself in at a station that night and admitted the crime, the investigators said on Sunday afternoon. The young person was then released again because there was no risk of escape, said a spokeswoman for the Saxon State Criminal Police Office, according to the DPA news agency. The suspect is not yet known to the police. The authorities did not provide any further information about his identity.

Matthias Ecke struck down in Dresden

The 41-year-old EU Parliament member Ecke was beaten up while hanging up election posters in the Striesen district of Dresden on Friday evening and had to be taken to hospital. A total of four people are said to have been involved in the attack. The group may also be responsible for a violent attack on a Green Party election worker that same evening. The investigations at the LKA are continuing.

Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) said: “We will continue the investigation meticulously and keep the pressure high.” He could also “only encourage the other perpetrators to report to the police.” We will not tolerate such a “brutal attack on election workers and politicians, but also on the foundations of our democracy and the conduct of free elections,” emphasized Schuster.

Last year, German security authorities registered a total of 2,790 attacks on politicians from the parties represented in the Bundestag. Representatives of the Greens were most frequently affected, followed by those of the AfD.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated since it was first published.

Sources: news agencies DPA and AFP