Agents in Germany's secret service destroyed files containing information on the National Socialist Underground (NSU), a violent neo-Nazi group responsible for 10 murders, hours before the files were due to be handed over to the federal prosecutor.
Members of the NSU murdered a policewoman and were responsible for the "kebab murders" of nine immigrants. Despite Anglela Merkel's
promises that the German government would "do everything we can to get to the bottom of this" as she spoke of the groups "horrible acts of violence" and "right-wing terror," the incriminating files kept on the NSU for a decade have been shredded.
The
Local reported the files were destroyed on the very day the group was linked to the series of murders committed over 13 years.
According to the
Independent Jörg Ziercke, the President of Germany's Federal Criminal Bureau, admitted his office had failed over the neo-Nazi investigation. They report that the bungled destruction of vital information has led to suspicions that members of the NSU were in the pay of the German secret service.
The case threatens to embroil Germany's secret service in scandal.