Gemany's most flamboyant politician hurtled 4,000m to his death Thursday as the police searched his home for evidence of tax evasion and fraud.
Police sources said that Jurgen Mollemann, who was widely blamed for robbing the right of a sure victory in Germany's general election, appeared to have killed himself during a parachute jump.
Witnesses said he appeared to take off his main parachute as he plunged earthwards over the west German town of Marl. His reserve parachute was not opened.
"It was clear it was suicide," said one witness, an experienced parachutist.
Mollemann's fellow MPs voted to lift his parliamentary immunity less than an hour before he jumped to his death. A prosecutor said investigators were searching the politician's home in Munster in the presence of his wife when news of his death arrived.
A leading figure in the minority Free Democratic party, Mollemann reached the apex of his career in the early 1990s when, for eight months, he was deputy chancellor under Helmut Kohl.
Between 1987 and 1993 he had a cabinet seat, first as education, then as economics, minister.
But it was in the past few years that he was most often at the centre of public attention. Unusually for a German politician, he was unrepentantly gimmicky: a former army parachutist, his favourite stunt was to drop out of the sky into party rallies.
Few things in Germany are more out of bounds for mainstream politicians than criticism of Israel or the Jews. Yet Mollemann, a long-standing supporter of the Arab cause, clashed repeatedly with Germany's Jewish leaders over their support for the Sharon government.
The traditionally liberal Free Democrats, who took a drubbing when Chancellor Kohl was ousted in 1998, have since been searching for a new, vote-winning formula.
Most have identified with neo-liberal economics, but there were suspicions that Mollemann had a different, hidden agenda -- to drag his party towards the sort of populism that won Pim Fortuyn success in the Netherlands.
In the run-up to last September's general election, he provoked outrage by printing and distributing a leaflet again criticising Sharon.
In November his problems worsened when prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into whether he had illegally funded the disputed leaflet.
He refused to disclose who provided the funds. He left the Free Democrats in March after months of efforts by its leaders to expel him.
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