Berlin - German Prosecutors confirmed Tuesday they were investigating the leader of a far-right party over a letter sent to politicians with foreign roots, telling them to go home. More than 30 Berlin politicians, including candidates running in Sunday's general election, received such letters from the Berlin chairman of the National Democratic Party (NPD), Joerg Haehnel.
The anti-foreigner NPD is also contesting the election, but is expected to fall well short of the 5 per cent minimum share of the vote needed for parliamentary representation.
The letter, made to look like it had come from an official body, had the heading: "Notice of an orderly implementation of the return of people with an immigrant background to their country of origin."
Among those who received one was Ozcan Mutulu, a Turkish-born candidate for the environmentalist Greens.
"I am a German citizen and have been a legislator for 10 years. What do I have to do to be accepted in Germany," he told the German Press Agency dpa.
The two-page letter was signed by Haehnel on behalf of "Your Commissioner for the Repatriation of Foreigners". The NPD official had threatened to send letters to other foreigners living in Berlin.
Prosecutors said they were investigating Haehnel for incitement to racial hatred.
In August, an Angolan-born black activist working for the conservative Christian Democrat (CDU) party in Thuringia received special police protection after the NPD openly threatened him.
In July, a man who had previously declared his allegiance to the NPD stabbed an Egyptian woman to death in a Dresden court room.
At regional elections in August the NPD won re-election to Saxony's federal state parliament. It also tripled its vote to 4.3 per cent in Thuringia, though ultimately failed to win a seat.
Germany's top court turned down a quest to ban the party in 2003, but there have been renewed calls this year for a fresh attempt to outlaw the NPD, which claims to have more than 7,000 members nationwide.
