German police raided offices of the country's largest neo-Nazi group today, searching for evidence that the organisation is acting illegally against the constitution.
The interior ministry said in a statement the large-scale operation in nine states began in the early hours of this morning against the "Help Organisation for National Political Prisoners and their Families" (HNG), an association which supports imprisoned right-wing extremists and their relatives.
Deputy interior minister Klaus-Dieter Fritsche called the HNG a threat to society. The liberal Free Democrats, junior partners in the centre-right government, have called for it to be banned as anti-constitutional.
The group aims to strengthen neo-Nazi attitudes among like-minded criminals who have been imprisoned, the ministry said. It wanted inmates not only to remain part of the far-right movement but to turn them into "combatants against the system".
Authorities said the group was founded in 1979 and has about 600 members. The interior ministry suspects it of trying to create a closer network within the often fragmented far-right.
In March 2009, the government banned a neo-Nazi organization, Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend, that sought to attract youths to an anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant ideology under the guise of activities such as summer camps and outings.
Agencies