BERLIN (AP) — An American Jewish group is applauding German police for taking former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke into custody before he could address a far-right gathering.

Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said Wednesday the move “sends an important signal that firm action against those who advocate hate must remain central to Germany’s moral and legal agenda.”

Cologne police say Duke, 61, was taken into custody Friday before his speech for breaking a travel-ban to many European nations including Germany.

They say the U.S. resident was released and forced to leave the country and that they do not know where he is now.

Duke’s website called the incident “thuggish communist-style oppression to suppress the right-wing.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.