Hamburg – Five months after rioters went on rampage at the G20 summit in Hamburg, the police on Monday released photos and video footage of suspects.
The police asked the public for their massive help in identifying rioters.
The Hamburg public prosecutor launched the appeal at police headquarters in the northern German port city.
Left-wing extremist groups responded by uploading their own images of some police officers who were involved in the riots.
They also used the website Indy media to slam the police’s public appeal as an attempt to undermine privacy and freedom of assembly.
Police estimate that between 5,000 and 6,000 rioters took part in the looting, arson and violent skirmishes that marred the July 6 to July 8 G20 summit.
The special task force set up to deal with the crime is working on 3,000 cases, police chief Ralf Martin Meyer said in early December.
The amount of data investigators are scrutinising is more than 10 terabytes.
In addition to their own recordings, police are looking at CCTV footage from buses, trains and train stations.
Members of the public have also uploaded thousands of pieces of potential evidence to a dedicated website.
“Geolocation data and face recognition software are being used in the investigations.
“The images made available to the public on Monday are arranged by crime or location,’’ police spokesman Timo Zill said.
