Germany's former top neo-Nazi hunter now being monitored as extremist

FILE PHOTO: President of the Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Hans-Georg Maassen attends a news conference in Berlin, Germany July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo

BERLIN (Reuters) - Hans-Georg Maassen, who until five years ago was responsible for protecting Germany against violent and extremist threats to its democracy, is himself now being monitored by the security agency he ran, the bureaucrat-turned-politician said.

Maassen was dismissed as head of Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) in 2018 after appearing to play down the threat of violence by right-wing extremists who at the time were rioting in an eastern German city.