Frank Magnitz, a member of the Bundestag from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), had said that he was brutally attacked by political opponents in his home base of Bremen. However, prosecutors said on Wednesday that footage of the attack casts doubt on the lawmaker's version of events.

According to AfD politicians, Magnitz, 66, he was attacked from behind with a piece of wood around 5:30 p.m. while taking a shortcut behind the Bremen City Theater to his car in a nearby parking garage. He said he was kicked after he had fallen down, and then blacked out.

Read more: Opinion: A plea for calm after AfD's Frank Magnitz attacked

Frank Passade, a spokesman with the Bremen prosecutor's office, said the video shows that Magnitz was attacked by three people, but he added that it looks likely that most of Magnitz's injuries were sustained as he hit the ground.

Magnitz checked himself out of the hospital on Wednesday and is recovering well, according to fellow Bremen AfD member Thomas Jürgewitz.

On Tuesday, the lawmaker spent most of the day talking to the press, inviting journalists to his sick bed to see the wounds on his face, covered with thick layers of gauze, and drawing their attention to the wheelchair he was using in hospital.

Frank Magnitz addresses the Bundestag

The attack drew condemnation across Germany, with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas saying that violence "should never be a means of expressing political disagreements," and Steffen Seibert, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, expressing the hope that the assailants would quickly be found and face justice.

Magnitz's AfD colleagues have used the incident as a call to action, blaming the far-left Antifa group, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), and "left-wing terrorists," for the parliamentarian's wounds.

CCTV may contradict Magnitz

On Wednesday, however, prosecutors in Bremen questioned whether Magnitz was assaulted in exactly the manner he described. A spokesman told German news agency DPA that CCTV footage of the attack showed Magnitz being elbowed once, then falling over as his attackers ran away.

Bremen police have said that the attack was "lightning quick," and that they were investigating charges of grievous bodily harm, saying they had no photographic evidence that Magnitz was kicked while already down.

Magnitz himself on Wednesday conceded that the attack may not have been politically motivated and may in fact have been an attempted robbery.</s>BERLIN — Two days after a right-wing politician was assaulted in Germany, drawing international attention, the authorities on Wednesday said that several elements of the account given by his political party appeared to be false.

Frank Magnitz, 66, a member of Parliament from the Alternative for Germany party, suffered head injuries in the attack in Bremen on Monday. Party officials said that three men had attacked him, beating him with a piece of lumber and then kicking him after he had fallen to the ground.

But after reviewing a video of the attack, law enforcement officials said that one assailant had struck Mr. Magnitz once from behind, knocking him down, before he and two others fled the scene.

No one hit the lawmaker with an object, they said, and no one kicked him.

“We assume that all of the injuries are the result of the fall,” said Frank Passade, a spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office in Bremen, which is investigating the assault.</s>German prosecutors told BuzzFeed News CCTV footage showed no weapon was involved in the assault on Frank Magnitz, contrary to what the far-right Alternative for Germany party had claimed.

German prosecutors have called into question claims by the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) that a high-ranking politician was the victim of a politically motivated attack.

 Frank Magnitz was assaulted Monday night after leaving an art gallery in Bremen, the northern German city where he is the local head of the AfD. No arrests have been made, and Magnitz left the hospital Wednesday. The AfD released a gruesome image of the 66-year-old in the hospital that showed a deep gash in his forehead, claiming it was the result of him being knocked unconscious with a wooden board and then kicked while on the ground.

Writing on Twitter, Jörg Meuthen, the AfD’s federal chair, called the attack an “assassination attempt,” while the party’s national coleader, Alice Weidel, put out a statement that said Magnitz was the victim of a “cowardly and brutal assassination attempt.”

 But Bremen prosecutors said Wednesday that CCTV footage did not show any evidence that the assailants had used a weapon, nor that the attack continued after Magnitz was unconscious.

 Frank Passade, spokesperson for the Bremen prosecutor’s office, told BuzzFeed News that the footage was “very clear” and that the wound on Magnitz’s head likely occurred because his hands were in his pockets when he was attacked from behind, so he could not break his fall.

 Passade said the police had received no evidence that Magnitz’s attackers were politically motivated. Police had said in the aftermath of the attack they believed the assault was due to Magnitz’s political affiliations.

Speaking to Berliner Morgenpost on Tuesday, Magnitz said he believed the attack was an “assassination attempt,” and suggested a group named after an asylum-seeker who died in police custody was responsible. But he also said that, “although it is not very likely, it may also have been a robbery.”

 The local AfD office did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News, but the Bremen vice chair, Thomas Jürgewitz, told Berliner Morgenpost that with “current knowledge, we would formulate the communication [of the attack] a little differently, but it corresponded to the state of knowledge shortly after the fact.” Jürgewitz said that the witness who initially claimed a 2x4 piece of wood was used in the attack has since vanished. He also said the widespread condemnation of the attack from across the political spectrum was “very encouraging.”</s>BERLIN — German authorities are investigating an online posting that briefly appeared on a far-left website claiming responsibility for an attack on a far-right lawmaker.

Bremen police said Thursday they are examining whether the claim by a group calling itself “Anti-Fascist Spring” was genuine or not.

The post, which was deleted shortly after it appeared on the Indymedia website late Wednesday, claimed Alternative for Germany’s local leader in Bremen, Frank Magnitz, had been attacked “in order to liberate him of his fascist ideas.”

Police said the 66-year-old suffered head wounds in the attack Monday when he was hit from behind and fell to the ground.

Magnitz’s party says the attack was politically motivated, a possibility police have said they are investigating, but not to the exclusion of other possibilities.</s>BERLIN (AP) - German authorities are investigating an online posting that briefly appeared on a far-left website claiming responsibility for an attack on a far-right lawmaker.

Bremen police said Thursday they are examining whether the claim by a group calling itself "Anti-Fascist Spring" was genuine or not.

The post, which was deleted shortly after it appeared on the Indymedia website late Wednesday, claimed Alternative for Germany's local leader in Bremen, Frank Magnitz, had been attacked "in order to liberate him of his fascist ideas."

Police said the 66-year-old suffered head wounds in the attack Monday when he was hit from behind and fell to the ground.

Magnitz's party says the attack was politically motivated, a possibility police have said they are investigating, but not to the exclusion of other possibilities.

In this May 18, 2016 photo rank Magnitz, member of the AfD parliamentary group Bundestag in Berlin, speaks during a rally of Alternative for Germany against the planned building of a mosque in Erfurt. Magnitz was attacked and beaten up by several people in Bremen, Germany, Monday, Jan.7, 2019. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

File----Picture taken May 18, 2016, shows Frank Magnitz, member of the AfD parliamentary group Bundestag in Berlin, left, besides Bjoern Hoecke, head of AfD in the German state Thuringia, right, during a rally of Alternative for Germany against the planned building of a mosque in Erfurt. Magnitz was attacked and beaten up by several people in Bremen, Germany, Monday, Jan.7, 2019. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)</s>German police say the AfD party chairman in Bremen was knocked down with a “lightning-quick” blow in a suspected “politically motivated” attack that left Frank Magnitz unconscious and with a “bone-deep laceration” to his forehead.

The account of events surrounding the attack on the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Bremen on Monday night still remains murky, because the victim of the assault was left senseless in the ambush. Magnitz told RT that he has never seen his attackers, who crept up on him from behind just as he passed two construction workers after leaving a New Year’s reception near Bremen's Goetheplatz.

“One of the laborers said three individuals had been walking behind me for some time. He said they were conspicuous because they were wearing hoodies, with the hoods covering their faces. I didn’t see them,” the 66-year-old member of the Bundestag added.

Police are now searching for the trio involved in the assault. After reviewing CCTV footage from the crime scene, investigators believe that Magnitz was struck from behind by only one member of the gang, which had followed their victim as he was walking to retrieve his car.

The public prosecutor's office in Bremen said that surveillance evidence showed Magnitz being struck down with a single, “lightning quick” elbow blow to his head before the pack ran away. “We assume that all of the injuries are solely due to the fall,” Frank Passade, spokesman for the Bremen public prosecutor's office noted Wednesday, claiming that the footage showed “no kicks on a person lying on the ground.”

The police version of the incident contradicts AfD's initial claims that the politician was beaten with a wooden stick and repeatedly kicked on the ground in an “assassination attempt.” The party explained their initial version of the incident was based on the information it was able to gather from one of the construction workers who witnessed the crime.

Magnitz was released from the hospital on Wednesday after suffering a “bone-deep laceration” to his forehead and injuries to his left knee. In an interview with RT, the politician stopped short of pinning the blame on any particular group, as he could not exclude the possibility that the assault against him could have been a failed robbery attempt. Authorities are still investigating the incident as a politically motivated assault.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!</s>Frank Magnitz, a member of the Bundestag from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), has said that he was brutally attacked by political opponents in his home base of Bremen. However, prosecutors said on Wednesday that footage of the attack casts doubt on the lawmaker's version of events.

According to Magnitz, 66, he was savagely attacked from behind with a piece of wood around 5:30 p.m. while taking a shortcut behind the Bremen City Theater to his car in a nearby parking garage. He said he was kicked after he had fallen down, and then blacked out.

Read more: Opinion: A plea for calm after AfD's Frank Magnitz attacked

On Tuesday, the lawmaker spent most of the day talking to the press, inviting journalists to his sick bed to see the wounds on his face, covered with thick layers of gauze, and draw their attention to the wheelchair he was using in hospital.

The attack drew condemnation across Germany, with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas saying that violence "should never be a means of expressing political disagreements," and Steffen Seibert, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, expressing the hope that the assailants would quickly be found and face justice.

Magnitz's AfD colleagues have used the incident as a call to action, blaming the far-left Antifa group, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), and "left-wing terrorists," for the parliamentarian's wounds.

On Wednesday, however, prosecutors in Bremen questioned whether Magnitz was assaulted in exactly the manner he described. A spokesman told Germans news agency DPA that CCTV footage of the attack showed Magnitz being elbowed once, then falling over as his attackers ran away.

Bremen police have said that the attack was "lightning quick," and that they were investigating charges of grievously bodily harm, saying they had no photographic evidence that Magnitz was kicked while already down.

Magnitz himself said on Wednesday that the attack may not have been politically motivated and may in fact have been an attempted robbery.</s>Police have released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to in connection to a robbery in Padiham.

The incident happened at Cheapside Mini Market in Padiham Road on Monday, November 5th, at around 8.30am.

A quantity of cash was stolen in the robbery and police believe the person in the CCTV image could have information which will help the inquiry.

If you know who the man is please call 101 quoting log number LC-20181105-0261 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
German prosecutors say, based on CCTV images, that most of AfD politician Frank Magnitz's injuries yesterday may have been sustained as he hit the ground after having been elbowed once by three people and falling over. Magnitz says the attack may have been an attempted robbery.