German neo-Nazis rally outside Berlin jail

BERLIN, Oct 22 (Reuters) - A group of 750 neo-Nazi sympathisers demonstrated outside a Berlin jail against the detention of the singer of an outlawed rock group.

German police said several hundred anti-fascists chanting ''Nazis raus'' (Nazis go away) were separated from the rally by police yesterday. There were no incidents of violence.

The far-rightists were protesting the detention of an obscure singer, Michael Regener. He also goes by the name ''Lunikoff''.

He was sentenced in December 2003 to three years and four months in jail after a court ruled his band ''Landser'' was a criminal organisation that spread racial hatred. He began his sentence in April 2005 after losing legal appeals.

Some protesters carried posters reading ''Freedom for Lunikoff'' as they marched near the Tegel prison in northwestern Berlin.

Israel's ambassador to Germany, Shimon Stein, said in an interview published yesterday in the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper he was concerned that Jews were not feeling safe in Germany. ''They are no longer able to pursue their Jewish way of life here freely,'' Stein said.

REUTERS PDS RAI0440