The Ingolstadt public prosecutor’s office in Bavaria, after having previously refuted allegations of an attack on AfD co-chairman Tino Chrupalla at a campaign event last week, has said that the conservative leader did indeed suffer from some kind of “puncture injury,” confirming earlier reports.
The prosecutor’s confirmation comes after an earlier article published by the Berlin-based conservative newspaper Junge Freiheit which reported that AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla was attacked with a syringe during an election campaign early last week in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.
According to the article, doctors working at the Ingolstadt Clinic, the hospital where Chrupalla was treated after he was whisked away in an ambulance on Wednesday, October 4th, said the AfD co-leader had experienced heart irregularities after suffering a hypodermic needle puncture wound.
Backtracking from previous statements where she claimed that reports of the injury only ended up in the doctor’s letter because they were part of Chrupalla’s account of what happened, the prosecutor stated: “This injury was part of the diagnosis in the doctor’s report, not the anamnesis [the medical history or recollection of event provided by the patient].”
Furthermore, the prosecutor’s office stated that a blood stain found on Chrupalla’s shirt, which the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) noted, did, in fact, come from the AfD leader himself, and added that “according to current assessments, this blood adhesion probably corresponds to the diagnosed puncture injury.”
While Chrupalla was in the hospital, some leftist media figures and politicians reacted to the incident with callousness and malice. Former television presenter Jörg Kachelmann’s reaction was particularly distasteful.
“Correct, the demands for sympathy for the fate of Mr. #Chrupalla are absurd. I am ready to condemn crimes in general. Beyond that, however, I must state that the country would have gained ethically and socially if he had not been born,” Kachelmann wrote on Thursday, October 5th.
Thuringian Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left), in a post to social media, seemed to suggest that Chrupalla had staged the entire incident as a way to drum up support in the state elections in Bavaria and Hesse. In the post is a picture of a Swiss roll with the AfD logo, under which the words “Victim role!” can be read. Above the picture, Bodo wrote: “Why, why do I think of that today? I don’t even know, but it just came to mind this morning!”
Following a medical examination of Chrupalla, doctors, in their write-up, said that a “needle stick injury” was discovered on the AfD co-leader’s deltoid muscle. Furthermore, the medical report states that Chrupalla suffered “dizziness with nausea and the urge to vomit as well as headaches while feeling faint after unclear intoxication [poisoning].”
“Mr. Chrupalla was admitted to our internal intensive care unit for further monitoring on October 4th, 2023 after an intramuscular injection with an unclear substance,” the medical write-up, which was obtained by Junge Freiheit, reads. The authenticity of the write-up has been confirmed by the Ingolstadt Clinic to the German news portal Apollo News.
Although doctors were unable to detect any substances in Chrupalla’s body following a toxicology examination, Chrupalla was diagnosed with a “complete right bundle branch block,” a type of heart block where the electrical impulses are completely blocked in the right bundle branch. At this stage, it’s unclear as to whether Chrupalla’s heart condition came about as a result of the injection.
During comments given to Junge Freiheit yesterday, October 11th, Chrupalla told the newspaper that, as a result of what he sees as failures by the police and public prosecutor to properly investigate the incident, he took the initiative himself to visit a pathologist in Dresden to find out what happened to him in Ingolstadt.
“It is a scandal that in the event of an attack I have to privately take on some of the work of the investigative authorities,” Chrupalla said, adding that the pathologist took a tissue sample of the affected area.
According to the pathologist’s assessment, “inflammatory changes” were present that can be “tracked into the subcutaneous tissue.”
Chrupalla also told Junge Freiheit that during the campaign event, “two young men hugged him while taking a selfie between 4:20 and 4:30 p.m,” and that shortly thereafter, his “right arm became very heavy” and he began to feel unwell.
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has apparently carried out its own toxicological evaluation, the results of which are still pending.
In a statement concerning the incident, the public prosecutor’s office in Ingolstadt told Apollo News:
According to current knowledge, several people took selfies with Mr. Chrupalla at the event in Ingolstadt, during which there was slight physical contact. There is currently no evidence that Mr Chrupalla was approached or attacked.
Shortly afterward, on the way to the stage, Mr Chrupalla felt pain in his upper arm. Due to further health problems, Mr Chrupalla was taken to the Ingolstadt Clinic for medical care. Superficial redness or swelling was noted on the upper arm. The other examinations carried out so far have been unremarkable.
This information is based on the witness statements available at this time. So far, Mr. Chrupalla, his bodyguards, a woman who worked as a steward at the event, and other participants in the event have been questioned as witnesses.
Further investigations are currently being carried out. Various reports were commissioned. Among other things, blood samples were taken and the clothing that Mr. Chrupalla wore at the event yesterday was examined. Results are still pending.
