German Greens MP resigns posts after drugs bust
AFP
March 3, 2016, 4:42 am
Berlin (AFP) - A German Greens party lawmaker Wednesday resigned from several political posts after police allegedly caught him carrying a small amount of suspected illegal synthetic drugs.
Volker Beck, 55, was found to be in possession of "0.6 grammes of a suspected narcotic substance," a prosecution service spokesman told Bild daily's online edition.
Bild reported that the substance found during a police street check in Berlin late Tuesday was thought to be crystal meth, but authorities did not immediately confirm this.
The lawmaker said in a brief statement: "I hereby step down from my posts as my parliamentary group's spokesman for interior and religious affairs and as chairman of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group."
Beck, who did not resign as a parliamentarian, said his lawyers would respond to any criminal charges levelled against him and added that "I have always supported a liberal drugs policy".
In mid-2014 a Social Democratic lawmaker, Michael Hartmann, stepped down from several parliamentary posts, including on an intelligence services oversight committee, after being caught with crystal meth.
