- Increased fatalities in North Rhine-Westphalia due to right-wing extremist actions.
New Study Suggests Higher Death Toll from Extremist Right-Wing Actions in North Rhine-Westphalia than Previously Thought.
Investigators reexamined 30 old cases of alleged violent incidents, and their findings, presented by North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) on Tuesday, suggest that seven of these incidents should now be categorized as right-wing extremist acts of violence. The initial number of reported deaths from right-wing extremism in the region was lower. The aim of this review was to establish the total number of official fatalities due to right-wing extremism between 1984 and 2020. Reul's Interior Ministry will provide additional details on the specific numbers during an afternoon press conference.
While the official figure for people killed by right-wing extremists in Germany since reunification stands at 113, sources like "Tagesspiegel" and "Zeit Online" suggest the number is closer to 190.
Triple Homicide in Overath
Previously, the State Criminal Police Office had reclassified a high-profile case from 2003 as a right-wing-motivated murder. Neo-Nazi Thomas A. had murdered a lawyer, his wife, and daughter in Overath near Cologne in October 2003. The lawyer had financially ruined the neo-Nazi by taking away his farm, where he hosted gatherings of right-wing extremists. Thomas A. was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Cologne Regional Court in 2004 and acknowledged the role of his Nazi beliefs in the crime. Researchers also took another look at the triple homicide committed by neo-Nazi Michael B. in Dortmund and Waltrop in 2000. They ultimately decided that this crime should not be classified as right-wing extremist-motivated.
The triple homicide in Overath, committed by neo-Nazi Thomas A. in 2003, was initially reclassified as a right-wing-motivated murder. Overath, being a nearby town to Cologne, was the site of this heinous crime.
