Authority spokesman Oliver Eisenhauer confirmed this on Thursday, 8 October, to ZDF [S2]. The authority gave no details on the allegations “for investigative-tactical reasons” [S1][S2][S3]. The Bundestag member's immunity was lifted for the investigation [S2]. The presumption of innocence applies.
Ahmetović’s lawyer Holger Nitz circulated a statement referring to the investigation in connection with the hospital site in Lehrte. Whether the investigation against Ahmetović is connected to it is not clear from the text, however [S1][S4]. The prosecutors likewise did not confirm such a connection and cited investigative-tactical reasons [S2][S3].
Ahmetović has nothing to reproach himself for, the statement says. “We assume that the facts will be clarified and the allegation against Mr Ahmetovic will then quickly be fully dispelled,” the Spiegel quotes the lawyer as saying [S1]. However, the prosecutors have so far not responded to the politician’s willingness to cooperate. The lawyer criticised: “Without knowledge of the files and thus the details of what he is actually accused of, my client cannot defend himself against the inaccurate allegation.” Instead, parts of the files had apparently reached the public. The prosecutors would have to clarify “how this breach of secrecy could happen” [S1][S4].
Three SPD politicians in investigators’ sights
Ahmetović is the third SPD politician against whom Hannover prosecutors are investigating in this connection. According to media reports, all three proceedings are said to belong to the same investigation complex surrounding the tender for a hospital site in Lehrte near Hannover – this is not officially confirmed [S1][S4].
On 9 September – eleven days before the Berlin election – the prosecutors confirmed that they were investigating Steffen Krach, who was in the middle of the election campaign as the SPD’s lead candidate. A day later they explained the allegations: initial suspicion of accepting benefits in two cases and, in a further case, possible anti-competitive agreements in tenders in concurrence with a breach of trade secrets and a breach of a confidentiality duty. Krach’s offices in Hannover, his flat in Berlin and the SPD state party headquarters in Berlin were searched, and his mobile phone was also seized [S1][S4].
Krach rejects all allegations. He was very confident that they would prove unfounded, the 47-year-old said on 10 September. He had been “surprised” at the timing of the flat search: “I don’t know what they were looking for there, under my children’s beds or in the car.” Besides his mobile phone, old family mobile phones and an iPad were seized. In the sale of the hospital site in Lehrte there had been a bidder he favoured. As regional president, Krach was chair of the supervisory board of Klinikum Region Hannover. At the end of December 2025 the entrepreneur had donated 9,900 euros to the Berlin SPD, he was informed of this on 7 January. The following morning he ordered the transfer back. The money was repaid. Neither privately nor as Berlin SPD chair had he accepted a donation from this company, and he had not allowed himself to be influenced. The contract for the hospital site went to a different applicant. He himself had abstained in the vote [S1][S4].
On 2 October the prosecutors confirmed that the then head of the Lower Saxony SPD state parliamentary group, Stefan Politze, is also under investigation. The authority left open what it concerned despite repeated enquiries [S1][S4]. Politze said he had learned of possible allegations against him through the media and did not know what they were about. “I have nothing to hide and hope for a quick clarification. I will gladly contribute to this,” he said on 2 October [S1][S4].
Five days later, Lower Saxony’s state parliament lifted Politze’s immunity [S1][S4]. On Wednesday, 7 October, the state parliament thereby cleared the way for investigations [S2]. On Thursday evening the 61-year-old resigned as SPD group chair. “The lifting of immunity and the reporting of recent days are a burden on the office,” he gave as his reason after a group meeting in Hannover [S2]. “Even though I am firmly convinced of my innocence, I feel the burden on the party, the group and me,” he said [S1][S2][S3]. In his view, a continuing debate would make the group’s political work impossible. “That is why I will take political responsibility and resign my office out of responsibility for the group,” Politze said [S3].
His lawyer Matthias Waldraff explained that Politze was being investigated in connection with the allegations against Krach. “The connection to this investigation complex is clear,” Waldraff told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Wednesday [S3]. Politze is suspected of aiding and abetting anti-competitive agreements. This offence presupposes a principal act. However, his client could not imagine “that Krach behaved in a criminally relevant way, that he committed a criminal offence”. The same applied to the suspicion of incitement to granting benefits. “He also did not commit any breach of secrecy” [S1][S4].
Lower Saxony’s minister-president and SPD state chair Olaf Lies expressed “respect” for Politze’s decision. He had made it so that the group could continue its work “with full force”, Lies was quoted as saying in a statement by the SPD state association. He thanked Politze for his “committed service to the group and to Lower Saxony” [S3].
Ahmetović has sat in the Bundestag for the SPD since 2021. Since 2020 he has been chair of the SPD in Hannover. Previously he worked, among other things, as personal adviser to the then Lower Saxony minister-president Stephan Weil [S2].
What happens next
Hannover prosecutors have so far given no details on the specific allegations against Ahmetović. Whether there is a connection with the complex surrounding the hospital site in Lehrte is not officially confirmed. The investigations are ongoing. The presumption of innocence applies to all three politicians [S1][S2][S3][S4].
