Third lawmaker from Germany's SPD facing corruption probe

Germany's Bundestag on Thursday lifted the immunity of Social Democrat (SPD) lawmaker Adis Ahmetovic amid a growing corruption investigation in the northern city of Hanover. 

The lower house of parliament voted to lift the 33-year-old's immunity in connection with the "authorization of judicial searches," according to a Bundestag document seen by dpa. 

Ahmetovic is one of three SPD politicians from Hanover under investigation over the tender for a hospital site in Lehrte, near Hanover.

The Hanover Public Prosecutor's Office said Ahmetovic's Bundestag office and three apartments were searched on Wednesday after his immunity was lifted. 

A lawyer for Ahmetovic, the SPD's chairman in the city and the party's foreign policy spokesman in the Bundestag, called the measures unlawful and said his client would lodge an appeal against the search warrant.

The allegations made by the public prosecutor’s office are unfounded, said lawyer Holger Nitz, describing the searches as "unnecessary and completely disproportionate." 

Ahmetovic is under investigation on suspicion of aiding and abetting anti-competitive collusion in tendering procedures related to the Lehrte site. 

The widening probe was made public after Steffen Krach, the head of the Hanover regional administration, faced a police raid on September 9 - just days before the Berlin state election, in which he was the SPD's lead candidate. 

The searches were carried out in connection with allegations Krach accepted benefits in tendering procedures. 

Prosecutors confirmed earlier this month that both Ahmetovic and Stefan Politze, the leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the Lower Saxony state parliament, were also under investigation. 

Politze subsequently announced his resignation from the party leadership. All three politicians have maintained their innocence.