Number two on the AfD European election list, Petr Bystron, is being investigated for money laundering and bribery. Now there are new allegations against the politician. Bystron is said to have used a fake address in Munich.
After searches on suspicion of money laundering and bribery, there are new allegations against AfD member of the Bundestag Petr Bystron. According to dpa information, investigators are investigating the suspicion that number two on the AfD’s European election list may have given a false address as a residence in his constituency in the north of Munich. Money is also said to have been paid for this.
“Spiegel” and ZDF first reported on the new allegations. Accordingly, two brothers are said to live in the apartment. Accordingly, two brothers are said to live in the apartment. One of them came to Germany from Turkey in the 1990s as an asylum seeker and had already been convicted of coercion. One stated that he had never met the AfD man and did not know him. When asked, Bystron denied that it was a fake apartment.
Bystron said on Tuesday: “I have a proper tenancy agreement but am being prevented from moving in because the previous tenant refuses to move out. As soon as the apartment is legally evicted, I will move into it too.” He described the allegations as a “campaign” that aimed to “damage me and the AfD in the elections.”
The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office, which had ordered searches of premises in Berlin, Bavaria and Mallorca as part of the investigation against Bystron, did not want to comment on the allegations when asked because the proceedings are ongoing. The presumption of innocence applies to all allegations until the proceedings have been concluded with legal effect.
The Bundestag lifted Bystron’s immunity in mid-May because the public prosecutor’s office was investigating him on initial suspicion of bribery and money laundering. Police searched, among other things, his parliamentary office in Berlin. Bystron himself described the proceedings as politically motivated. He expects the proceedings to be discontinued “when the election is over.”
Bystron and the AfD’s top candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, have been in the headlines for weeks because of possible connections to pro-Russian networks. According to media reports, public prosecutors are examining possible monetary payments to both politicians. After the search operation, Bystron temporarily refrained from campaigning for the AfD – citing family reasons.