BERLIN, July 10 (Xinhua) -- German Interior minister Horst Seehofer on Tuesday issued a formal ban on all activities of the notorious German motorcycle club "Osmanen Germania BC".
"The club's activities constitute a serious threat to individual rights and the wider public," an interior ministry statement read.
The announcement followed several police raids of premises associated with the "Osmanen Germania BC" motorcycle gang in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria and Hesse.
Eight members of the group aged between 19 and 46 are currently standing trial in Stuttgart, Baden-Wuerttemberg on charges of serious bodily harm, attempted murder, attempted manslaughter, blackmail, drug-related and pimping, and illegal weapons possession.
According to the Interior Ministry of North-Rhine Westphalia, the "Osmanen Germania" group recruits among Germans of Turkish origin and is estimated to count around 500 members in total.
Unusually for a motorcycle club, "Osmanen Germania" bikers regularly appear at political rallies in Germany and systematically agitate against perceived enemies of Turkey, local media reported.
The newspaper "SPIEGEL" cited a confidential police report that officers should therefore expect "excessive violence" when the Turkish-nationalist gang members encountered rival Kurdish groups.
Back in February, German special forces shot and killed Hamit P., the groups former "world president", during a raid of his Wuppertal apartment.
State prosecutors subsequently explained that police had encountered resistance when they were trying to deliver an arrest warrant to Hamit P. for offenses which were "typical" of the subculture surrounding motorcycle clubs and have launched an independent enquiry into the incident.
Internal police reports describe the former gang leader as armed and dangerous, leading to the inclusion of special forces in his attempted arrest.
The outright ban declared on Tuesday is grounded in the German Law on Associations which obliges clubs, societies and other social organizations to abide by the national criminal code in their activities and founding purpose.
The decision by the interior ministry affects all sub-groups, or "chapters", of the motorcycle in the country's 16 federal states.
Speaking to press in Berlin, Seehofer said that the German government would combat all forms of organized crime, including motorcycle gangs. "Whoever rejects the rule of law cannot expect our mercy," Seehofer said.
