Germany to relocate Islamist and seal streets during papal visit

Sep 15, 2011, 16:30 GMT

Berlin - Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Germany next week will be accompanied by tight security measures, police announced Thursday, including the relocation of an outspoken Islamist and forcing residents to seal windows along the pontiff's motorcade routes.

Benedict is to pay a state visit to Berlin and two other cities from next Thursday until September 25. Since becoming pope, he has visited his homeland twice in his capacity as a religious leader, but this time he will be honoured as head of state of the Vatican.

A 26-year-old man who served jail time for assisting an Islamist terrorist plot, but is now is free on parole in the southern city of Freiburg, was served an order requiring him to relocate while the pope is in the city on September 25, a court official said.

The man's name has been withheld from publication under media privacy guidelines.

In Berlin, police said residents were banned from watching the papal motorcade through open windows. For security reasons, every window in apartment blocks flanking the avenues must remain shut.

In Erfurt, the other city the pope is to visit, residents will not be allowed to line the road as the pope drives into town. Police said nobody would be allowed to approach closer than 50 metres to the motorcade route.

About 100 opposition legislators, who object to teachings of the Catholic Church, plan to boycott an address by the pope to the Bundestag, or parliament, on Thursday. The chamber has 620 members.

While bishops in Germany have been restrained in their comments on the Bundestag boycott, referring to the democratic right to disagree, a Vatican cardinal was more forthright.

'The parliamentarians ought to consider how this will look from abroad,' Walter Brandmueller, who is German, told mass-circulation daily Bild.

'They'll boost the image of the 'ugly Germans' which sadly still exists,' the cardinal added.

Parliamentary officials said the empty seats would be filled by guests.