Germany's intelligence service has found itself at the center of a widening scandal after it was confirmed yesterday that its agents had destroyed files containing vital information about a neo-Nazi terrorist gang hours before the material was supposed to be handed to federal prosecutors.The case involves the National Socialist Underground, a neo-Nazi group responsible for Germany's worst acts of far-right violence since World War Two. Its members murdered a policewoman, gunned down nine immigrants, carried out two bomb attacks and robbed 14 banks to finance their operations.
Police discovered the bodies of the gang's two ringleaders, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt, in a burned-out caravan last November. Investigators established that they had committed suicide after robbing a bank. A third member of the gang, Beate Zschäpe, was caught and arrested. She is still being questioned.
Details of the scandal were leaked yesterday, prompting German Interior Ministry officials to admit that domestic intelligence agents, who had been keeping the terrorists under surveillance for more than a decade, had destroyed files containing information about the group.
They revealed to a parliamentary inquiry that the agents had shredded the documents on November 11 -- the day they were due to be handed to Germany's Federal Prosecutor, who had taken over the investigation.