Category Archives: Refugees

Germany: Major Terror Attack foiled just in Time / Suspect a Syrian Refugee

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Update:
1. The German interior minister Lothar De Maiziere gave a short press briefer on the foiled attack of today.

2.
Terror suspect wanted to kill as many as possible
An original translation from Die Welt.

  • A Syrian was arrested on suspicion of preparing an attack motivated by Islamism. According to the federal prosecutor’s office, he had made up his mind to “kill a number of people, as large as possible”.
  • Thomas De Maiziere said that the arrest in Schwerin prevented “a grave terror attack”.

A Syrian was arrested in Schwerin on the strong suspicion of preparing an explosives attack, motivated by Islamism. This is what the federal prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday morning (CET). Special forces of the Federal Police and the Federal Criminal Police Office were deployed in the action.

Additionally, the apartment of the suspect, and more apartments in Schwerin and in Hamburg were being searched, as Welt learned from police sources. One investigator told Welt: “The arrest of this man, particularly on Reformation Day, when there is a large event in Wittenberg with many top politicians, gives food for thought.”

According to investigations, the 19 year old accused is strongly suspected of having planned, and already concretely prepared, an islamistic-motivated attack in Germany with a highly potent explosive. Apparently, the authorities had the young man in their sights for a period of time. Already in July 2017, he had made up his moind to detonate an explosive device in Germany, to injure and kill a number of people as large as possible.

According to information by Die Welt, the Syrian Yamen A. came to Germany in October 2015. Currently, it does not appear that the 19-year-old already came to Germany with an order to prepare an attack. At the moment, [authorities] assume that he radicalized in the country.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) accordingly came across suspicious commumication on the internet, which led to a Facebook profile. Upon this, according to security authorities, Facebook was asked to disclose the user data of the terror suspect, but it took a while, until the suspect could be identified without doubt, and, finally, localized. The data contained extensive chat communication with a person who is deemed an “IS follower” and who calls himself a “soldier of the Caliphate”. This is congruent with Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) who pointed out the importance of the internet for the arrest.

The federal prosecutor’s office confirmed early Wednesday afternoon (CET) that the suspect had contact over the internet ot a person who called himself “soldier of the Caliphate”. “But we do not know who this person is, and we do not know if he encouraged him (the suspect) in his plans”, said Frauke Köhler, spokesman of the federa prosecutor’s office.

Therefore, at the moment, charges are not laid against the Syrian for membership in a terrorist organization, but for preparing a grave subversive crime [translator: “eine schwere staatsgefährdende Straftat”, a grave subersive crime, is the technical term for a terror attack in German Officialese], Köhler said.

Special forces arrested the 19 year old Syrian in the early morning hours under the suspicion of preparing an islamistic-motivated bomb attack. Apartments are searched in Schwerin, and in Hamburg.

At the moment, no hints to membership in a terrorist organization

He allegedly begun in July to gather technical components and chemics that are needed for building an explosive devicde. It were still unclear if the accused already had a concrete destination for his explosive attack. As for the moment, the federal prosecutor’s office would not yet have hints of a membership of the accused in a terrorist organization.

There have been repeated arrests in Germany of suspects who were preparing attacks out of Islamistic motivation. The latest was the arrest of a 40 year old last Wednesday in Berlin, whom investigating authorities deem a member of Islamist circles. In July 2016, a 27 year old Syrian refugee self-detonated on the square in front of a music festival, 15 people were injured.

The office of the federal prosecutor announced a release on the state of the investigations in the afternoon.

In lieu of any photo material of the arrest, a picture of the rather pleasant city of Schwerin; capital of the northeastern German federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. / (photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Note: we will be updating this post when new information comes in.

 

Merkel booed massively in Munich

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Friday night’s campaign event in Munich, just two days before the election, was less than jubilant for the chancellor – see our videos posted eaerlier today.
We have translated an excerpt from a report of the event from Münchner Merkur.

Putting up a brave front: Joachim Herrmann, Angela Merkel, and Horst Seehofer. Photo: AFP

“Final Election Campaign Rally on Marienplatz:
Angela Merkel in Munich: Chancellor hissed mercilessly
By Franz Rohleder.
Campaign hell for the chancellor in Munich. Angela Merkel was massively booed on Marienplatz on Friday. 

  • Deafening chorus of whistles Friday evening for chancellor Angela Merkel on Marienplatz in Munich at the closing event of the CSU campaign in the federal elections.
  • Loud whistles and „Hau ab!“ („Get lost!“) calls for the chancellor.
  • AfD and Pegida had registered their own events, just a few metres away
  • Munich saw a culmination of the Anti Merkel protests, which took place, among others, at Merkel speeches in Bitterfeld, Torgau, Rosenheim, and several other towns.
  • Already the campaign appearances of the chancellor in Heppenheim (Hesse) and Ulm (Baden-Württemberg) saw loud whistles, booing, and „Merkel must go!“-calls.
  • Apart from the chancellor, president and CSU-chief Horst Seehofer, the CSU candidate [and Bavarian Interior Minister – translator] Joachim Herrmann, and CSU secretary Andreas Scheuer spoke, too.”

Local with “Merkel get lost” sign, photo: Charlotte Braatz

Merkur then go on to interview citizens at the event, like Helmut Strobler, a 72 year old local, who says: “These refugees all come to Germany because they know here they receive the highest social benefits. And I oppose that. We have had a lack in affordable housing for ten years now. And now we have one million more people. Where are these people supposed to live?”

Estranged Allies – Merkel and the CSU

In Munich, Angela Merkel was on foreign turf. She is the head of the CDU. But the CDU is not listed in Bavaria. The dominating party of Bavaria is the CSU, a conservative party leaning sligthly to the right. Their support is needed by the CDU, Angela Merkel’s party, to secure their dominating position in the German Bundestag, just as the CSU need the support of the CDU to extend their influence beyond Bavaria. The alliance of these two parties is called “The Union”.

Merkel’s turn to the left shook the relations within the Union. Currently, in the election phase, there is a ceasefire between the two estranged allies. Just how far CDU and CSU have drifted apart was visible though in the speeches given tonight by Merkel and Joachim Herrmann, the CSU candidate and Bavarian Interior Minister. (The following account of the speeches follows Merkur’s report, but we have slightly condensed it and re-arranged it in chronological order:)

6.58 PM: Angela Merkel speaks. Loud whistles and booing. The applause of the CSU followers fades markedly.
6.59 PM: Merkel to the protesters of Munich: „You can’t shape Germany’s future with whistles and shouting.“ Some in the audience flip the bird. Merkel needs to speak loudly, to get throught he whistles.
7.03 PM: The protests are louder than the church bells
7.06 PM: Merkel thanks everyone who helped in making the German reunification a success. Loud booing. The chancellor is almost yelling into her microphone.
7.15 PM: The CDU’s official twitter account posts a photo that suggests a completely different atmosphere than currently prevailing in Munich. Here, the chancellor Angela Merkel is still massively whistled.
7.17 PM: There is a confrontation between police and AfD followers. One man is arrested.
7.19 PM: In her speech, Merkel presented central election promises of the Union, like lower taxes, more investments in education, and an expansion of digitalization. She confirms that she wants to focus on familiy politics.
7.21 PM: As at every election rally, in Munich, too, Merkel thanks everyone who helps refugees. And as usual, the chancellor stresses that a situation like in 2015 must not repeat. But the protest is not ceasing.
7.27 PM: Merkel: „Everyone is proud of their own culture, their own dialect. It is our strength that we are so difficult and still united – we have many roots.“
7.33 PM: CSU candidate Joachim Herrmann speaks. He were happy about “most” guests. In a democracy, it is the majority that counts, not the volume level. Applause, but also whistles and boos.
7.35 PM: The CSU interior minister stresses Bavaria’s achievements in inner Security. The Union wants to make Germany the safest country in Europa.
7.37 PM: Joachim Herrmann wants an upper limit on refugees, and border controls. But the chancellor has got a different opinion on this. She repeatedly stressed that there will be no upper limit, and no border controls with her.
7.38 PM: Herrmann shouts into his microphone to drown the whistles. He stresses that more rejected asylum seekers have to be deported.
7.39 PM: Herrmann: „Yes, we stand by the Christian character of our country.“
7.40 PM: Joachim Herrmann says it were unbearable when refugees rape women. He is, of course, alluding to the current case of Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn. (see our report: 16 year old raped in the open street by 3 Afghan ‘refugees’, Sept. 16)
7.50 PM: The finale of the election campaign ends in Munich with the singing of the Bavarian Hymn and the German national anthem.
7.55 PM: At the closing of the election campaign Friday evening in Munich, the chancellor repeatedly complimeted the CSU politics in Bavaria – and CSU chief Seehofer complimented Merkel’s governing as „good years“. Both were in their speeches widely ignoring the conflict about an upper limit for refugees of 200,000 per year, which the CSU strongly demands, and Merkel clearly rejects.

Maria L. was his third victim, at least

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As a supplement to the videos posted earlier today, two original translations with slightly differing details.

Hussein Khavari confessed to killing Maria Ladenburger

1. from Badische Zeitung:
Second day of the trial of Hussein K.:
A confession – and possibly another rape
The defendant Hussein K. confessed to killing the student Maria L. The first witness testimony in the trial alleges to another crime: Possibly, Hussein K. raped a girl as a teenager in Iran. The second day of the trial in recap

The Confession
A long second day in the case of the murder of Maria L. brings several bombshells. First, the defendant Hussein K. made a comprehensive confession. He admitted to killing and then raping the studet Maria L. in the early nmorning hours of October 16, 2016, around 3 AM on the bike trail at the river Dreisam behind the SC stadion. This was his depiction. He placed the lifeless victim only a meter from the shore into the river, to wash away the blood that had dropped on her. Hussein K. said that he had injured himself on the thorns of a black berry bush. Previously, he had stopped Maria L. with a kick against her bicycle. The student was on her way home from a party.

Hussein K. said that he had strangled his victim, who was screaming loudly, to death with his scarf. He had abused her after she had died. As a matter of fact, according to the forensic findings, Maria drowned in the Dreisam. The victim’s body had several bite wounds.
Trial observers note that the confession of the defendant does not unequivocally contain characteristics of murder [as defined in German law – translator]. Thus, at least in theory, a sentence for manslaughter might come into question.

The First Witness
The first witness to testify is the detective chief inspector who was presiding the investigations as the criminal investigation department’s main case handler. The investigators were able to reconstruct with witness testimonies how the defendant had spent the day and the evening before the deed. First, he had been drinking and smoking hashish with friends in the Seepark. According to the investigators, the friends cannot confirm that Hussein K. was under the influnece as strongly as he had said. The group of young men then later parted ways downtown.

The alleged attempt at Prostitution
Hussein K., the witness reports, thereupon went to the homosexual venue “Sonderbar”. There, he offered sexual services for money to a guest – who declined. He allegedly also harassed two women in the bar.

Did Hussein K. rape a 12-year old when he was 14?
The investigator pointed to the testimony of a fellow inmate of Hussein K. This inmate testified that the defendant had told him about the crime in Greece, where he threw a young woman down a quai wall. And Hussein K. allegedly also told him that when he was 14, he had raped a 12-year old girl in Iran. The case never went on records, as the families arrived at an arrangement. Hussein K. was beaten – by his own father. Apparently, the prosecution inivestigated into this case. It seems that there is another testimony on this, but according to BZ information no official confirmation.

The Question of Age
The age of Hussein K. remains open. He gave different answers to two friends who kept inquiring. He told one that he was 27. To the other one he said that he was 24. He also told authorities in Greece and in Germany completely different dates of birth.
There will be age expertises presented in the course of the trial. One will be based upon the examination of a canine of Hussein K. The defendant had been keeping this tooth in his room, where the investigators found it at the search of the house.

2. From Focus*.
Hussein K. admits to abuse and violence against Maria L.
Day Two of the Trial
September 11, 2017
Focus Online reporter Fabian Herbers

An improvised memorial at the scene of the crime

09.05 AM: Punctually at nine, the defendant Hussein K. enters the hall in the district court Freiburg. He knows the frenzy of flashing cameras from the first day of the trial. He is shackled on hands and feet today, too.

09:19 AM: The defendant reads a prepared note: “I ask you for forgiveness. I want to apologize to the family of Maria. I wish I could make it undone. I am sorry from the bottom of my heart about what I have done”. He says that he dreams about it every day. He speaks quietly, but is alert. After he has finished reading, he wipes tears from his face. Maria’s parents do not attend the second day of the trial either.

09:24 AM: Hussein K. testifies about his age. He says, he is 19 years old. Before the trial, Hussein K. had said that he was 17 at the time of the crime in October 2016.

09:44 AM: Hussein K. details the night of the crime. He were drinking and smoking hashish with three friends. Then he got kicked out of a bar because he was so drunk. At some point, he walked home. At the river Dreisam, the girl approacched him on the bike. He kicked the bike, so she fell. Maria screamed, he pressed her mouth close. Then, he strangled her with her scarf, and laid her in the water, unconsciously. “When I saw how pretty she was, I wanted sex with her.”

But in his own account, he was too drunk to have an erection. Therefore, he inserted his hand. As he had injured himself previously at a bike accident, he dragged her into the river, to wash his blood from her body. Then, he fled. After his account, he cries, the judge orders a break.

10:30 AM: Judge Schenk inquires: How did you feel the days before the deed? Hussein K. says that he attempted suicide seven days before the deed. Allegedly, he too, 15 sleeping pills and a juice. A psychiatrist allegedly prescribed him both. The judge tries to reconstruct the evening before the deed. To many questions, Hussein K. replies that he didn’t know anymore. He avoids eye contact, keeps his head lowered. He could not remember where he boarded the street tram after the deed. “If I tell you that there are video recordings of you at Bertholdsbrunnen, can you remember then?”, the judge asks. But this question does not help either.

“Did you want to have sex with a dead?”
10:50 AM: He is asked to detail the deed again. Because she screamed, he took her scarf and put it around her neck until she didn’t move anymore. He thought that she was dead. “Did you want to have sex with a dead?”, the judge asks. Hussein K. answers: “I didn’t mind having sex with a dead.”

11.56 Uhr: Hussein K. is still in the witness stand. He speaks quietly, and assures the judge upon her requests that he cannot remember anything. The judges want to fill in blanks, that Hussein accounted for vaguely or left out in his testimony. Often, his answer is: “I don’t know.” The judge inquires about a “Chinese” whom he allgedly met that night. A witness is reported to have said that the defendant told him that he wanted to rape her, too. But Hussein K. denies that.

The suspect allegedly harassed other women
12:23 PM: It is the prosecutor’s term to question the defendant. The central question is: did the deed happen on impulse, or with the intent to rape the woman? Chief Prosecutor Eckart Berger lists that Hussein K. did not just harass a woman in a bar, but another woman in the street tram, proven by the video recording. Furthermore, he had been staring for minutes at a woman at the ticket vending machine. To each of these questions, the defendant replies that he cannot remember.

He does not admit that he allegedly told a friend after the deed that he had killed and raped a woman. Neither does he admit that, according to testimonies by friends, he had already before the deed intended to rape a woman. Where do the biting wounds on Maria’s body come from? In his own account, Hussein K. doesn’t remember.

12:43 PM: Hussein K. says that he did not see whether the cyclist at the Dreisam was a man or a woman. The lawyer of Maria L.’s parents wants to know why then he kicked the person from the bike, it might have been a strong man. Hussein K. says that he simply kicked, without giving it a thought.

12:57 PM: The defendant comes back to his failed suicide attempt, seven days before the deed. He were wishing today that he would have managed to end his life. Because of the failed suicide attempt, he were not feeling well on the day of the deed.

1:00 PM: The hearing is suspended for a lunch break. It will be continued at 2:15.

2:33 PM: The first referee is police officer Edgar Pfeifer. At 8:20 in the morning after the deed, police received several calls. A patrol car then found the naked body of Maria L. She was lying in the water at the riverside. In her bag, police found her ID. Thus, they learnt that the victim had been living in a student home. Interviews there revealed that Maria L. had a boyfriend. But the two separated consensually a while before the deed.

Maria L. sent her last message to a girlfriend
2:58 PM: The police officer explains that Maria L. was known as abstinent and cautious. In her pocket, the investigators found a sealed condom. It turned out that she had gotten it on the event where she had just been as a giveaway from a condom company. Data from her mobile phone shows that Maria L. sent her last Whatsapp message from there to a girlfriend: she were cycling home now.

3:27 PM: Police officer Pfeifer explains how the investigators found the trace of Hussein K.: Five hair strands were  secured in a blackberry bush at the scene of the crime. Four of them were the victim’s. The fifth was 18 centimetres long, brown, with bleached lengths. Police subsequently viewed for days video material from the night of the crime from cameras all across town.

Finally, an investigator saw a man, in a video recording from a street train line 1 bound to Littenweiler, whose hair matched the hair that was found at the scene of the crime – he wore an undercut and a pony tail. The man’s behaviour in the video recording raised suspicion, because, according to Pfeifer, he sat down next to a woman at the station Bertholdsbrunnen. She seemed visibly uncomfortable and left to find a different seat. Then, on December 2., 2016, the manhunt was successful: A female police officer from Freiburg recognized Hussein K. on the street, even though he was wearing a baseball cap and had changed his hair.

4:04 PM: Now, it is about his age: how old was Hussein K. at the time of the crime? “He did not seem like a 17-year-old to me”, says Pfeifer and points out the older appearance, and his “bearing”. His behaviour in detention, too, pointed towards K. being older. The policeman also says: in the night of the crime, Hussein K. was out and about with six men – but then he went to the “Sonderbar” – a homosexual venue in Freiburg, Piper says. The barkeeper there said that K. seemed absolutely sober to him. Hussein K. offered a male guest sex for money. But the man refused. Then, K. danced with a woman and “groped” her.

4:43 PM: In jail, Hussein K. apparently confessed to a fellow prisoner, who then later on told the police that K., according to his own words, when he was 14, raped a 12-year old from a neighboring village in Afghanistan. There were no charges laid, the two families agreed on a corporal punishment for K.

15:30 PM: The second day of the trial is ending. 

* This text appeared in Focus in slightly different form. Assuming that readers are familiar, we left out the introduction, which recaps the crime, and the last paragraph, which recaps day 1 of the trial. We then re-arranged the order for your reading convenience, as the article was originally published in form of evolving updates, with the first entry from 9:05 AM at the bottom and the closing of the day on top.

Mediterranean Illegal Immigration: Is Europe finally beginning to protect itself?

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An original translation from German magazine Der Spiegel. Please note that due to their political bias, Der Spiegel here depict measures as drastic and excessive that one might see as quite reasonable.

EU Documents
Migrants to be deported to Niger
Europea increasingly seals itself off from migrants. According to internal documents, people in need of protection are to be flown back to Niger. The Federal Government [of Germany] supports this.
By Markus Becker, Brussels
September 6, 2017
Little time? There is a summary at the end of the text.

The European Union is increasing their efforts to keep refugees and migrants from Africa away – and it appears they are ready for increasingly drastic measures. This is what internal papers and answers to parliamentary inquiries prove that Spiegel have obtained.

The core of the plans is to stop migrants long before they venture from Libya and other Northern African countries out on the Mediterranean. It is already known that the EU intends to achieve this with development aid, the military buildup of African military and police units, and a stronger surveillance of the Mediterranean. The new documents show just how far the Europeans are ready to go.

One of the central points is the retransition of people to their homelands. Even “migrants in particular need of protection” are not to be brought into the EU from Libya, but flown to Niger. Allegedly, the UNO refugee relief organization UNHCR agreed upon such deal with the government of Niger. This is what the answer of the Federal Government [of Germany] to a ‘small inquiry’ of The Left [Die Linke] in the Bundestag says.

In Niger, the need for protection of the migrants then is supposed to be thoroughly examined, and perhaps the possibility of bringing them into the EU might be considered. But the paper leaves open why such an examination would be necessary in Niger, when the need for protection has already been established in Libya – as well as the question who is going to carry out the examination in Niger. Upon repeated inquiry, the Foreign Ministry referred to the UNHCR.

EU Commission to enforce retraction agreemend “with all means”

The Left strongly criticise the plans. “The long-cherished dream of European hardliners will become true under Angela Merkel, architect of the fortress Europe – the establishment of European camps on the African continent”, says the speaker for European policies of The Left, Andrej Hunko. The UNHCR were making themselves “the helpman of the European migrant Abwehr”. Constantin Hruschka, jurist in Bielefeld, voices concerns, too. The right to an asylum procedure were an “essential part of the right to protection from persecution or torture or inhumane or humiliating treatment”. If the access to such procedure were denied, this were a breach of those rights.

A speaker of the UNHCR refuted the accusations. One were only reacting to the humanitarian emergency in Libya. To bring some of them to Niger were a “humanitarian answer”. The question of a resettlement of migrants to Europe were a discussion which needed to be held subsequently. “We want a legal way to Europe for these people.”

The commission just shortly ago showed how serious they are about the retraction of rejected asylum seekers. At the end of July, the authorities in Brussels detailed to the embassies of the member countries how they planned to implement their new migration action plan. The internal letter says that retraction agreements and “practical agreements” with third party countries were to be introduced – “using all means”.

According to the commission’s plan, Libya is to be provided with information: the starting points of migration in third-party countries were to be monitored more closely, suspicious vehicles detected and traced by satellite and aerial images. To stay up to date about new trafficking routes, the EU asylum authority Easo could surveil traffickers and migrants, and the “discourse on asylum”, in social media – in Arabic, Farsi, Dari and Pashto, the implementation plan which was obtained by Spiegel says.

The strenghening of military and security forces in African states, too, is to go further than previously known. At the end of July, the EU commission and Italy agreed to provide Libya with training, vessels and land vehicles, communication equipment, and the setup of command centres. It appears that a new project comes in addition, a “pilot activity” on the Libyan southern border, the “exact organization” of which is to be set after an exploratory mission, the Federal Government’s answer to the inquiry by The Left says.

The EU might take more action in Niger, too, which 90 percent of all migrants from Western Africa pass through, as an internal document from the EU exterior agency EAD reveals. The EU mission Eucap, which is training security forces in Niger for their fight against terror and organized crime, “made noteworthy progress on a strategic level” in the first half of the year. At the same time, EAD suggests to their member states to more strongly support the operations in Niger against human, drug, and weapons trafficking.

Armament in the Fight against Migration

The militarization of the fight against migration is advancing. A “G5 Sahel Joint Force” was agreed upon – a joint military unit of the states of Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauretania, and Burkina Faso, to intercept migrants before Libya. Germany and France want to send money, materials and ammunition for the troop of 5000, which, according to information of the Federal Government [of Germany] is expected to cost 423 million Euro. The EU commission in its implementation plan suggests “joint patrols” and coordination between the G5 force and the Libyan authorities – of course with the help of the EU.

It remains to be seen if this will suffice to seal off the Libyan southern border. The problem is that the border basically just exists on the map. In reality, it stretches for hundreds of kilometres of Sahara, surveillance without a gap is hardly possible. “Instead, the measures will lead ot more deaths, as the refugees will be forced to take longer routes through the desert”, criticizes The Left politician Hunko.

Still, the Federal Government [of Germany] endorses the commission’s plan. The Foreign Office set a clear goal in a directive to the embassy in Brussels: the “swift implementation” of the undertaking and a “concentrated action” of the EU and the member states. Berlin thus wants to prevent a “solo action of Italy” which feels let down by the rest of the EU in the migration crisis.

Summary: The EU wants to increase their efforts to stop migrants and refugees from Africa – long before they reach the Mediterranean. Even people in need of protection are to be flown from Libya to Niger. Additionally, the EU wants to strengthen military and police forces in African states with many millions of Euros, to avert migrants.

Germany: Rejected Asylum Seeker Kills Prostitute

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An original translation of German newspaper Bild.

Rejected Asylum Seeker Strangles Prostitute
Why was the murderer of Lica (33) not deported?

Prostitute Lica L. (†33) was strangled to death in her apartment in Regensburg. She had been living in Germany for four years.

By J. Völkerling, September 06, 2017

Regensburg – It is difficult to take. Another asylum seeker, who should long have been deported, killed a woman in Germany!

Only Wednesday, Bild reported about the murder trial of Hussein K. (according to expert assessment, older than 22), who had raped and murdered student Maria L. (†19). K. should never have received asylum procedures in Germany: he had already applied for asylum in Greece, and had spent time in jail for attempted murder.

Now, the next case surfaces

In the night of August 29./30., Souleymane T. (21) from Mali sees prostitute Lica L. (†33) in Regensburg. They have sex, he pays 50 Euro. Then the man presses a pillow on the Romanian woman’s mouth, strangles her to death, flees with his victim’s money and phone.

Monday, police is able to arrest the African in Weiden in Upper Palatinate, after they were able to geolocate the phone. He is in detention for murder since.

His motive? Greed! „He killed the woman for financial reasons“, announces Franz Schimpel of the criminal investigation department Regensburg.

The man from Mali should not even have been here anymore in the first place – two montsh ago, his asylum application had been rejected!

The proceedings: Souleymane T. entered Germany on March 30, asked for asylum one day later in Heidelberg, and was transferred to Regensburg, where he filed his application officially. His accommodation is opposite the apartment of his later victim. In May, T. committed battery in the accommodation.

A housemate tells Bild: „He came from the town of Bamako. I went to the welfare agency with him, I had to pay for the taxi, as he refused. I did not want to share a room with him anymore.“

Already on June 20 – only three months after entry – his application for asylum is rejected. The authorities were quick! But T. is not deported: „As the man was not possessing a valid passport, the aliens registration authority requested substitute papers from the Republic of Mali.“

The photo of his birth certificate which he produced on entry was not sufficient for the authorities.

„It is not clear if this was the photo of a genuine document“, a speaker of the government Upper Palatinate says to Bild. As several authorities are involved in the acquisition of a substitute passport, one had no influence „on the timeline of the consulr proceedings“.

Why was T. not in custody pending deportation? A police speaker says to Bild: „A substitute document was requested from the Republic of Mali, and for the time being, a suspension of deportation is extended, time and again. The battery offense in May was no sufficient reason for custody.“

Translator’s Note:
This case is particularly sad, as a Romanian woman is the victim. Since an alliance of Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals, and Die Linke completely legalized prostitution in 2002, Germany has become the center of human trafficking of women from impoverished families in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. These women barely make a living, and send the little money they can save home to their families, many of them were even forced into prostitution.

Germany: Trial Of ‘Unaccompanied Minor’ Who Murdered Maria L. Starts Today

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Freiburg: Today is the first day of the trial of the ‘unaccompanied minor’ refugee Hussein Khavari, who raped and drowned the medical student Maria Ladenburger on October 16, 2016. Some parts of today’s hearings will be in closed session.

People queuing in front of the court  this morning

From Die Welt:
Audience is Queuing – Hussein K. Announces Statement

Surprise in the trial of the murder of the student Maria L. in Freiburg: the plaintiff announced a statement. Meanwhile, there were protests in front of the District Court, and viewers were standing in queues.

The death of Maria L. shook the nation: in October, she was raped and left to die in the littoral zone of the river Dreisam. Now, the murder trial in Freiburg is starting with a surprise: after the suspect, Hussein K., did not even give details about his person for months, he now suddenly announced a statement.

The young man appears tired and indifferent in front of the court on Tuesday morning. His attorney says that he took a sedative before the hearing started. Nonetheless, he were ready to answer the court’s questions.

The public interest in the trial is enormous: the trial began under strict security measures. People had been queuing in front of the District Court as early as two hours before the hearing.

In sight distance of the court, according to police, about ten people close to the AfD were protesting with banners („Protect Borders – Save Lives“). They had announced their protest on the Augustiner square. 50 left-wingers showed up for a counter protest that had been organized on the internet. Both groups were yelling slogans, the police did not have to intervene, it was announced. The protests ended at around 10:30.

Defendant’s Identity is still unclear
The hearings are closed to the public in parts. The chief judge decided that the audience has to leave the room when the defendant provides information about his sexual biography. Further details about the defendant though are discussed in public.

At the beginning of the hearing, the prosecutor describes a cruel acting of Hussein K.: according to this, the defendant ambushed the 19-year-old shortly before 3 AM in the night – the student was on her way home from a party. Hussein K. allegedly pulled her from her bike, bit her three times in the head and chest, and undressed her. Then he choked her and raped her brutally.
Subsequently, he placed the unconscious woman in the river Dreisam – according to the prosecutor, he had wanted her to drown. Additionally, the water was supposed to obliterate traces.

K. was arrested in December 2016. His identity still remains unclear. While Hussein says that he is 19, prosecution estimate him at least at 22. Two age evaluations are supposed to underpin this during the trial. According to the court, the defendant was born in Iran – until now, it had been announced that he came from Afghanistan.

Because of the doubts about his age, the hearing is at the court’s juvenile division. If he is found guilty, the court can judge according to adult criminal law though.

A Previous Attempted Murder
After K.’s arrest it surfaced that he nearly killed a 20-year old woman in Greece, before his flight to Germany. He had been arrested, but was released in a general amnesty. He then went underground, and re-appeared, unrecognized, in 2015 in Germany, as an alleged underage refugee.

Questions about the violent deed in Greece will not be permitted in the hearings in Freiburg.

There are 16 days scheduled for the hearings. The verdict is expected not before early December. 45 witnesses and ten experts will be heard.

Oh well, now that they are here and we can’t or won’t send them away, we might as well give them work permits and federal funds

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An original translation from German daily newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt:

Merkel and Scholz: Integrate Rejected Asylum Seekers
By Christoph Heinemann and Christian Unger
25.08.17

Olaf Scholz, mayor of Hamburg, and Angela Merkel

Abendblatt exclusive: Access to language courses and Federal Funds
Merkel formed task team in response to Scholz’ Motion

Hamburg/Berlin.
The lost ones meet every Friday evening in a cafe in the Schanze. Seven young Afghans without a perspective to stay – as their asylum application has either been in process for more than one year, or has been decided upon negatively, they aren’t allowed to work or to visit a proper language course*.
Several thousand of such people, often merely “tolerated” for years, live in Hamburg.
Mayor Olaf Scholz (SPD, Social Democrats) apparently wants to grant these people extensive assistance measures. As Abendblatt learnt exclusively, already in June a task force was formed upon decision of chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU, Christian Democrats), which is to develop suggestions. Members of this task force are representatives of Senate, the Chief of the Federal Agency for Work, Detlef Scheele (SPD), as well as leaders of Saarland which is led by the CDU. In November, the group is expected to present their findings at a meeting of the Federal Presidents.

Scholz wants to give rejected asylum seekers a perspective
Olaf Scholz (SPD) had put the topic on the agenda at a meeting of the minister presidents, according to sources in the Senate. The plan is to assist all those asylum seekers more, who do not have a safe perspective to stay, but who de facto will be in Germany for a longer period of time. “You need to face reality and give these people a chance, too”, a source neaer Scholz said. The chief of the Agency for Work and former Senator for Social issues, Detlef Scheele, allegedly is also among the advocates for better assitance of the affected peole.

Possible reforms are politically sensitive
A source close to the mayor says that several concrete steps are possible: the admission of people fro countries like Afghanistan into integration courses of the Federal Agency for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and better care by the Federal Agency for Work, and faster issue of work permits.
According to the source, in the future, also foreigners who are merely tolerated** might be able to profit from assistance programmes, for example the Federal Agency for Work might pay for part of their wage, to encourage giving work to refugees. The focus of the efforts is intended to be on people who have already been living in Hamburg and in other federal states for a few years with an insecure perspective of staying.
Speaker of Senate, Jörg Schmoll, did not want to comment on the task force and the suggestions upon request. A speaker of the Federal Agency for Work merely confirmed that Detlef Scheele would deliver a presentation at the next meeting of the minister presidents. The making available of funds for (rejected) asylum seekers is politically sensitive. Normally, a “tolerance” (suspension of deportation) is only issued when a deportation cannot be carried out for concrete reasons, for example illness. But in fact, deportations to Afghanistan are extremely rare, due to the situation in that country. In Hamburg, Afghans make for the largest group of asylum seekers and refugees, even before the Syrians.

Translator’s notes:
*  “aren’t allowed to work or to visit a proper language course”
Every foreigner in Germany, legal or illegal, may sign up for the many language courses available on the free market. So what is meant by “proper language course” must be public-funded language courses with no tuition fee
** “tolerated”, “geduldet”, is a legal term for people who are in Germany illegally, but who are not deported for a variety of reasons