Federal Crime Bureau chief forced out

5 February 2004

BERLIN – The head of Germany’s Federal Crime Bureau was removed from office Thursday after disagreements over moving the agency from Wiesbaden to the German capital.

Interior Minister Otto Schily announced the early retirement of Ulrich Kersten at a news conference.

The new head of the Federal Crime Bureau – Germany’s version of the American FBI – will be Joerg Ziercke who headed the police force in Schleswig-Holstein state, said Schily.

Kersten had been involved in controversial plans to move the Federal Crime Bureau (BKA) to Berlin. The move was fiercely opposed by several of Germany’s federal states which guard their institutions granted under the nation’s decentralised federal system.

Schily justified Kersten’s removal by saying the BKA chief had been due to retire in 2006 and could not have played a long-term role in further BKA restructuring.