German Federal Police Chief dismissed for contacts with Belarusian powers

The German Minister of Interior Affairs dismissed the Federal Police top management.

The German newspaper Tagesspiegel received this information from a source in the police (translation by charter97.org). The information hasn’t been confirmed yet. German Minister of Interior Affairs Hans-Peter Friedrich is reported to have dismissed chief of the Federal Police Matthias Seeger and his two deputies.

Matthias Seeger was the chief of Germany’s Federal Police since March 2008. According to experts, one of the key reasons behind the dismissal was interior conflicts within the Federal Police and Seeger’s connections with the Belarusian powers. In June the newspaper Bild wrote about discontent among German police officers with their leadership’s contacts with the Belarusian police. An official representative of the Federal Police didn’t comment on the article. Dieter Roman will become the police chief after Seeger. Presently Roman is the head of the German Interior Ministry’s anti-terrorism department.

Previously Seeger visited Belarus and met with the powers. Afterwards the Belarusian special purpose units went to Germany for a training session. The session held to “share experience” was discussed in the Bundestag. Gregor Gysi addressed the country’s federal government asking to verify if there was any cooperation and sharing of experience between the German special police units and Belarusian OMON in the issue of suppression of public rallies. The German left wing cited official and non-government media who had previously reported that the German Interior Ministry had suggested the Belarusian police learning from their experience of handling mass rallies. Following the proposal, a German delegation visited Belarus 23-24 April, 2009.