<p>BERLIN — Police in Berlin have arrested a 53-year-old German man on suspicion of sending dozens of threatening letters to politicians, lawyers and journalists that were signed with the acronym of a far-right extremist group.</p>
<p>Prosecutors in Frankfurt, who are handling the case, said early Tuesday that the man was detained in the German capital on Monday.</p>
<p>The suspect, whose name wasn’t released for privacy reasons, has previous convictions for “numerous crimes, including ones that were motivated by right-wing ideology,” prosecutors said.</p>
<p>The letters were signed “NSU 2.0” – a reference to the National Socialist Underground group that was responsible for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/3d1631f7210641a8829f88373565d674">a string of violent crimes</a> between 1998 and 2011, including the racially motivated killings of nine men with immigrant backgrounds and a policewoman.</p>
<p>Police think the suspect sent almost 100 letters to dozens of people and organizations across Germany and Austria since 2018.</p>
<p>German security agencies warned of the growing threat of violent far-right extremism. In July 2019, a regional politician from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/state-courts-angela-merkel-crime-germany-courts-60c5d9f587ed41e914e93540f174bdc2">killed by a neo-Nazi</a>; three months later, a gunman tried to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-germany-yom-kippur-international-news-shootings-1ffa8eb5cbb244f3bab1444bfabb9a66">force his way into a synagogue on Yom Kippur</a>, killing two people.</p>
<p>In February of last year nine people with immigrant backgrounds were shot dead in Hanau, near Frankfurt, by a gunman who had <a href="https://apnews.com/article/shootings-turkey-germany-international-news-cultures-b5736c3dba1d677e89ef947bcf5ab213">called for genocide</a>.</p>
