Media reports have speculated that investigators found discrepancies in 52-year-old Mannichl’s claim that he was stabbed by a neo-Nazi in mid-December, reporting that leads point to a domestic dispute instead.
But Mannichl, back on the job after his hospitalisation, told the daily Passauer Neue Presse that the reports – and anonymous tips from investigators to tabloid newspapers – were an attack on him and his family.
If a review of the investigation “reveals that grave mistakes were made, then I hope that someone says, ‘We’re sorry, we shouldn’t remain silent and put these mistakes on the back of the victim,’” Mannichl told the paper.
He also criticised the public prosecutor’s office for speaking of “oddities” in the case early in the investigation, but failing to substantiate them.
Mannichl, who is known for being tough on neo-Nazi activities in his Bavarian city, also said that he and his family still hadn’t returned to their normal lives since the stabbing.
“I still fear that I’m not out of the shooting range,“ he said, adding that his family lives with the fear that “the criminal will come again.“
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. He said that the man said something along the lines of, “Greetings from the national resistance,” and then, "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.