German Greens MP resigns posts after drugs bust

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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.