Skip to content

Walter Lübcke: Person questioned over German shooting mystery

AFP File pic from 2012 shows the administrative chief of the western city of Kassel Walter LübckeAFP
The council chief was shot in the head, police confirmed earlier

One person has been detained and released in connection with the shooting of a German politician, which shocked the country a week ago.

Walter Lübcke, 65, head of the regional council in Kassel, was found dead in his garden last Saturday night.

A person was taken into custody "provisionally" and released overnight, the police said.

One German paper says the detainee was a "younger man" who said he was in a "private relationship" with the victim.

Reuters German police officers arrive at the house of District President of Kassel Walter Luebcke, who was found dead, to search neighbouring properties in Wolfhagen-Istha near Kassel, Germany, June 3, 2019.Reuters
The shooting happened in the quiet village of Istha

Lübcke was a leading member of the ruling centre-right CDU in the central German state of Hesse, running the authority in one of its three areas for the past decade.

Police ruled out suicide, raising fears his shooting was politically motivated because of death threats made after he stood up to the far right in the past.

His body was found at 00:30 on Sunday morning (22:30 GMT Saturday) on the terrace of his home in the village of Istha, police said. He was declared dead two hours later. He left a wife and two grown-up children.

Istha, which is home to only 900 people, had been hosting a beer festival, which ended that Saturday and one local report speculated that he might have met someone at the time of the event.