Germany: Sheep heads thrown at lawmaker's office

Unknown assailants threw two sheep heads at the office of a left-wing lawmaker in the East German city of Leipzig on Thursday night, police in the city said.

The perpetrators also set off fireworks and left a note with a message. There was no damage done to the building.

The incident follows an attack on a mosque in the city, allegedly carried out by an extreme left wing group, that sparked outrage locally.

Juliane Nagel, a lawmaker for the Left party in the state of Saxony whose office is in the building that was attacked on Thursday night, told the local Leipziger Zeitung newspaper that: "It's now clear that we've been made responsible for the attack on Monday."

Believed to be an act of revenge

Leipzig police were unable to give details as to who might be behind Thursday's incident, but said that: "Evidence was found at the scene of the crime that suggests a political motivation. For this reason, police state security is taking over for further investigations."

Nagel told the public broadcaster MDR on Friday that pyrotechnics exploded outside the office and that two animal heads were thrown out of a car, as well as a handwritten note that included the word "mosque."

She said on Twitter that she believed it showed her party was being held at fault, at least by the perpetrator, for the vandals' actions: "we are being made responsible for the attack on the mosque, or for not having taken a critical position."

"That's rubbish: We've clearly stated that an attack on a place of prayer and retreat for migrants is wrong!"

Mosque with Turkish ties 

Nagel's criticism of the damage done by an extreme left group at the Leipzig mosque — that left many of the building's windows smashed — was accompanied by a criticism of the mosque's benefactors.

"There's no need to fool yourselves, the imams there are Turkish officials, they get their sermons sent over from Istanbul," she had also told the local newspaper Leipziger Volkszeitung in the aftermath.

The mosque belongs to the DITIB network which falls under the umbrella of Diyanet, a Turkish state-operated religious institution. The organization has been criticized in the past for spreading Turkish right-wing nationalism and antisemitism. 

The co-chair of the Leipzig migrant advisory board, Francesca Russo, slammed the actions of the small leftist group: "We're shocked that a group of people who claim to be against fascism, oppression and street violence, commit acts of violence themselves."