By DPA
Muegeln (Germany) : German prosecutors said Friday they were investigating 12 suspects in connection with the mob attack on eight Indians in the eastern town of Muegeln two weeks ago.
A spokesman said the men, aged 17-35, came from the town and the surrounding area, but none of them had previous convictions for right-wing crimes.
Police have questioned more than 125 witnesses in connection with the Aug 18 attack, which caused international outrage and revived calls for a ban on the extreme right National Democratic Party (NPD).
The eight Indians were punched and kicked when a 50-strong mob chased them through the streets of the town and tried to kick down the doors of a pizzeria where they had sought shelter.
The secretary general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Stephan Kramer, called on the mayor of Muegeln to resign after the politician initially sought to play down the incident.
Mayor Gotthard Deuse said racist slogans uttered during the attack could “easily slip out of anyone’s lips.”
The Free Democratic Party (FDP) politician “is a reflection of the society which elected him,” Kramer told the N24 television news channel.
The incident in Muegeln was the first in a spate of racist attacks that rocked Germany last week, including another rampage by a mob in the eastern city of Buetzow that targeted a Pakistani.
Police said members of local right-wing groups were involved in the rampage, which saw a snack bar operated by a Mahmood Saqib ransacked and death threats uttered against the Pakistani.
Other attacks saw an Afghan woman pushed down a flight of stairs, an Iraqi beaten over the head with a baseball bat and injuries to three men from Sudan, Egypt and Ghana.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has led German politicians in condemning the attack in Muegeln as “extremely grim and shameful.”
The anti-foreigner NPD, which is represented in the regional parliaments of two of the eastern states where the attacks occurred, has been wooing young voters in the region.
Leading German politicians have expressed doubts whether a ban could be imposed after a similar attempt was quashed by the country’s top court in 2003.
The deputy president of the European Commission, Franco Frattini, called for the banning of the NPD after the attack in Muegeln.
He said in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday that neo-Nazis represented “a threat” and “an ulcerous cancer for democratic countries like Germany.”