"The work of investigators doesn’t get any easier with constant gossip in the public," he told the paper, adding that Mannichl himself would be "well-advised not to hinder the investigative work of his colleagues through public interview statements."
Even more restraint from Germans domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), would be "advisable," Herrmann said.
However, he said Bavaria will continue to fight for a ban on the neo-Nazi NPD party. One reason was that if other extremist groups like al-Qaida tried to establish a political party such as those allowed by the German constitution, "we’d have no chance at all to take action against such a party."
Media reports last week said that investigators have found discrepancies in Passau police chief Alois Mannichl’s claim that he was stabbed by a neo-Nazi in mid-December and leads point to a domestic dispute instead.
Mannichl was hospitalised until just before Christmas with critical injuries after he said he was stabbed on his front porch by a skinhead on December 13. The 52-year-old reported that the man said something along the lines of, “Greetings from the national resistance,” and said, "You leftist pig cop, you won't trample on the graves of our comrades anymore," before stabbing Mannichl in the stomach with a 12-centimetre knife.
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