Security has been tightened around Jewish institutions in this country following reports that a German neo-Nazi who was trained in Palestine Liberation Organization camps in Lebanon is suspected of complicity in the murder last May of Vienna city councilman Heinz Nittel who was also the president of the Austrian-Israel Friendship Society.
A security official said that a full-scale investigation is going on to determine whether there are any possible plots against Jewish personalities or friends of Israel in West Germany. The official said that about 10 neo-Nazis who were trained in PLO camps are known to be presently in Germany. He could not say how many other German neo-Nazis are still in training in Lebanon.
Karl-Heinz Hoffmann, the leader of this group and the head of a so-called sports group, his woman friend and four other neo-Nazis who received training in PLO camps are in custody in West Germany. Hoffmann is also suspected of the murder of the Jewish publisher, Shlomo Levin, in December 1980 in Nuremberg.
A few months ago, German police launched a major crackdown against neo-Nazis in the country. An intensive search of hundreds of apartments yielded a large quantity of arms and of neo-Nazi propaganda material.
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