Pressure grows on Fischer to quit

Fischer maintains he has no reason to resign his post

BERLIN, Germany -- Pressure is growing for Germany's foreign minister to resign over his left-wing militant past and allegations that he committed perjury.

Prosecutors have applied to parliament to open a formal investigation into the claims arising from a high-profile criminal case.

Joschka Fischer appeared as a character witness at the trial of Hans-Joachim Klein, who was involved in the attack on an OPEC oil ministers' meeting in Vienna in 1974.

But he insisted late on Friday that he had no reason to resign his posts as foreign minister and deputy chancellor, an action that commentators said would cripple Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's centre-left government two years before the next election.

Frankfurt state prosecutors also notified parliament that they had grounds to suspect Fischer may have lied to the court about meeting with a Red Army Faction (RAF) guerrilla in the 1970s.

Klein was jailed for nine years on Thursday after he was convicted on three murder and three attempted murder charges.

Minister immune

A leader of the conservative opposition in parliament, Peter Ramsauer, called on Fischer to go on leave until the probe is finished, while Bavarian state premier Edmund Stoiber said the minister would have to quit if it was proved he lied.

"Fischer should temporarily leave office until it is determined whether he had ties to terrorists, and if so what," Bild newspaper quoted Ramsauer as saying on Saturday.

Stoiber, a potential challenger to Schroeder in the next election in late 2002, said Fischer would have to go if it turned out he had lied in court about an association with a RAF guerrilla in the 1970s.

"If it is proven he gave false testimony then he would no longer be acceptable as a member of the government," he said.

As a government minister, Fischer, 52, has immunity from prosecution and the Bundestag would have to grant its approval for any legal investigation to begin.

Further permission would be required for any prosecution to start. Perjury carries a jail term of up to five years in Germany.

More controversy over allegations he attended an anti-Israel conference in Algeria in 1969 is also hanging over the minister.

"Fischer has a lot of explaining to do not only about his past but about what he told a court," Hesse state premier Roland Koch said. "He is trying to push his past out of his memory."

Schroeder has stood by his Greens coalition partner even though newspaper editorials warned of possible dangers ahead and leaders of his SPD in parliament were complaining about Fischer.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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German Federal Government
German Courts
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