Boy (17) turns himself in to the police after assaulting a German MEP

After the brutal attack on German MEP Matthias Ecke, a 17-year-old boy turned himself in to the police. He says he is one of the four perpetrators of the attack.

The 41-year-old politician Matthias Ecke, from the left-wing SPD party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, was attacked and assaulted by four people in the Striesen district of the German city of Dresden on Friday evening around 10:30 PM while he was hanging up election posters. He was seriously injured and was taken to hospital. There he underwent emergency surgery. In the meantime, according to his party members, he is doing “well considering the circumstances”.

Teen turns himself in

In the night from Saturday to Sunday around 1 a.m., a 17-year-old reported to the police in the south of the city of Dresden, says the criminal investigation service LKA (Landeskriminalamt). According to German media, he was accompanied by his mother and confessed to the facts. As it is believed that the teenager will not abscond, he has not been taken into custody. The teenager would not have been known to the police for previous incidents.

The identity of the three other perpetrators is not yet clear. According to witnesses, the victims are men between 17 and 20 years old. The investigation continues.

Shortly before the attack on Ecke, a 28-year-old employee of the Green Party (Grünen) had also been kicked and beaten while putting up posters in Dresden. Authorities suspect the same group is responsible for both attacks. Nothing is yet known about the motivations of the perpetrators.

“Our team was attacked a few meters away by the group of four,” Valentin Lippmann (30), member of the Greens parliament in Dresden, told Bild. “They also hit our helper in the face and kicked him. Thank God he was not as seriously injured as Mr. Ecke and was able to return home after outpatient treatment by the emergency services.”