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Berlin mailbox bombing suspect arrested

A suspect in a mail box bomb attack was arrested Saturday evening; soon after police defused a possible home-made bomb related to the attacks, hidden underneath a clothing donation container, Berlin police reported.

Published: 7 December 2008 09:48 CET

Berlin mailbox bombing suspect arrested

Photo: DPA

Heinrich-Heine Strasse, a major street in central Berlin, was closed for several hours Saturday night and Sunday morning as explosives experts used a robot to defuse the device.

The find was in connection with the Saturday evening arrest of 32 year-old Peter John, a suspect in a November 26th bombing attack in Berlin that seriously injured his 12 year-old niece. John was allegedly involved in a long-running family dispute. The bomb was placed in the family’s mailbox.

Berlin police offered a €10,000 reward earlier in the week for information leading to John’s arrest, calling him “extremely dangerous.”

In addition to the attack November 26th attack, the girl’s father discovered a bomb atop his vehicle, which failed to explode. Police also found a bomb in John’s red BMW.

Germany in talks on further payout for 1972 Olympics victims

Ahead of the commemoration in September, relatives of the Israelis killed have indicated they are unhappy with what Germany is offering.

“Conversations based on trust are taking place with representatives of the victims’ families,” a German interior ministry spokesman told AFP when asked about the negotiations.

He did not specify who would benefit or how much money had been earmarked, saying only that any package would “again” be financed by the federal government, the state of Bavaria and the city of Munich.

On September 5th, 1972, eight gunmen broke into the Israeli team’s flat at the Olympic village, shooting dead two and taking nine Israelis hostage, threatening to kill them unless 232 Palestinian prisoners were released.

West German police responded with a bungled rescue operation in which all nine hostages were killed, along with five of the eight hostage-takers and a police officer.

An armed police officer in a tracksuit secures the block where terrorists held Israeli hostages at the Olympic Village in Munich on 5th September 1972. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Horst Ossingert

The spokeswoman for the victims’ families, Ankie Spitzer, told the German media group RND that the amount currently on the table was “insulting” and threatened a boycott of this year’s commemorations.

She said Berlin was offering a total of €10 million including around €4.5 million already provided in compensation between 1972 and 2002 — an amount she said did not correspond to international standards.

“We are angry and disappointed,” said Spitzer, the widow of fencing coach Andre Spitzer who was killed in the attack. “We never wanted to talk publicly about money but now we are forced to.”

RND reported that the German and Israeli governments would like to see an accord by August 15th.

The interior ministry spokesman said that beyond compensation, Germany intended to use the anniversary for fresh “historical appraisal, remembrance and recognition”.

He said this would include the formation of a commission of German and Israeli historians to “comprehensively” establish what happened “from the perspective of the year 2022”.

This would lead to “an offer of further acts of acknowledgement of the relatives of the victims of the attack” and the “grave consequences” they suffered.

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