The leader of a neo-Nazi gang was arrested after five of its members, all heavily armed, engaged in a gun-battle with police on a highway outside of Munich, Bavarian Interior Minister Gerold Tandler announced yesterday. Two of the gang were killed and three were arrested, one severely wounded.
Taken into custody immediately after the incident Tuesday night was Friedhelm Busse, 52, who heads the “Socialist Peoples Movement of Germany/ Party of Labor.” It is classified by the authorities as a small group but with widespread international ties, including links in the United States, France, Belgium, Britain, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
In October 1980, Busse was given an II-month suspended jail sentence by a Munich court for inciting racial hatred. A henchman, Alfred Nusser, was fined the previous January for wearing a Nazi-style uniform.
Although Busse’s group was relatively obscure, Tandler hailed the police action as a “great success” against the violence prone rightwing. Police said the gang was apparently on its way to rob a bank. The three survivors were identified only as a 19 year-old Frenchman and two Germans, both 18. The dead were aged 21 and 24.
The “Socialist People’s Movement” says its aim is to transform society by creating the first “radical, democratic and anti-imperialist state on German soil.” (See late development, P.3.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
