Hans-Georg Maassen, the
head of Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the
country's domestic intelligence service, has been released from his post and been
made a secretary at the Interior Ministry. Maassen was sacked over his response
to far-right unrest in Chemnitz, where anti-migrant "hunts" were
reported at the end of August during a period of unrest set off by the killing
of a German man, allegedly at the hands of two foreigners. Maassen was
criticized for publicly doubting that the hunts had happened and downplaying
the seriousness of far-right violence.