{"id":644628,"date":"2019-06-09T10:24:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-09T10:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"
\"Walter<\/p>\n
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\"Walter<\/div>\n

Detectives in Germany investigating the fatal shooting of a prominent member of Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s party have questioned a man.<\/p>\n

Walter Luebcke, whose body was found in his garden last Sunday by a relative, had been gunned down at close range with a single shot to the head.<\/p>\n

A man was taken into \u201cprovisional\u201d custody in the case on Saturday, but German media has reported he was subsequently released.<\/p>\n

The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said the person arrested had been known to the 65-year-old.<\/p>\n

Mr Luebcke was a leading member of the ruling centre-right Christian Democratic Party and headed the Kassel regional government in the state of Hesse in central Germany.<\/p>\n

Described as a \u201cpopular and extraordinarily approachable\u201d man he had previously been subjected to far-right threats after speaking out in defence of migrants at the height of Europe\u2019s 2015 refugee crisis.<\/p>\n

At that time, Mrs Merkel threw open Germany\u2019s borders to more than one million migrants, drawing criticism.<\/p>\n

Mr Lubcke publicly supported allowing refugees to settle in the country and told anyone who opposed this that they were \u201cfree to leave\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, no link is being made between his killing and these earlier threats.<\/p>\n

Mr Lubcke leaves a wife and two grown-up children.<\/p>\n

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