LANDAU IN DER PFALZ, Germany: A failed asylum seeker accused of stabbing his 15-year-old ex-girlfriend to death faces a court verdict on Monday, in a case that Germany’s far-right has seized upon in its campaign against migrants.
The verdict in the western German town is due at a time when anti-migrant protests have erupted in the eastern city of Chemnitz over the fatal stabbing of a man, allegedly by a Syrian and an Iraqi.
Identified as Abdul D., the accused in the teen killing has admitted to the court to stabbing the girl at a drugstore in the town of Kandel on December 27.
Prosecutors believe that he acted out of jealousy after the girl broke up with him.
If convicted, Abdul D., who claims he is from Afghanistan, faces up to 15 years in prison.
Besides his nationality, doubts have been raised about his age, which he said was 15 at the time of the crime.
An expert had estimated his age as between 17 and a half and 20, nevertheless, the court hearing took place behind closed doors and under juvenile penal rules.
Abdul D. arrived in Germany in April 2016 and his request for asylum was rejected in February 2017 although he was not immediately deported.
The case is one in a string of high profile crimes allegedly committed by asylum seekers that has stoked popular anger against the new arrivals and put pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel over her liberal refugee policy.
Far-right party AfD has been mobilizing regular demonstrations over the killing in the small town with a population of just 9,000, as it sought to bolster its anti-migrant campaign.
At the peak of the protests, thousands marched in Kandel. But they appear to have since lost momentum.
On Saturday, a demonstration in the town attracted 350 people, local police said.
Residents of the small town frustrated by the far-right rallies also lined the demonstration route, carrying banners like “Stop hate and incitement” or “Kandel is colorful, not brown” — in reference to the Nazi’s khaki uniforms, according to national news agency DPA.
Rhineland-Palatinate state premier Malu Dreyer accused the far-right of exploiting the teenager’s death for political gains, saying it was “intolerable.”
“It is the hope of all of us that once the trial is over, peace will return to Kandel,” she said.
Across the country in Chemnitz, tensions were also running high over another stabbing case.
Rival rallies in the eastern city on Saturday drew 11,000, with far-right demonstrators outnumbering counter-protesters by 8,000 to 3,000, police said.
Eighteen people were reported injured, police said, with a Social Democrat MP also saying that his team was “attacked by Nazis” as they were heading toward their bus.
Resentment against the arrival of more than a million asylum seekers since 2015 is particularly strong in Saxony state, where Chemnitz is located.
Railing against asylum seekers, the AfD has won strong support in the state, and surveys suggest that it is poised to become Saxony’s second biggest party in next year’s regional elections.
On Sunday, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas urged Germans to “get off our sofas and open our mouths” against xenophobia.
“All of us have to show the world that we democrats are the majority and the racists are the minority,” he told Bild am Sonntag.
“The silent majority must get louder.”
Afghan faces German murder verdict amid tensions in Chemnitz
Afghan faces German murder verdict amid tensions in Chemnitz
- At the peak of the protests, thousands marched in Kandel
Russia jails 15 for life over IS-claimed 2024 concert hall attack
- Eleven other men were also jailed for life for acting as accomplices and of having terrorist links
- Four more men were handed sentences of between 19 and 22 years over their links with the attackers
MOSCOW: A Russian court on Thursday handed life sentences to four gunmen from Tajikistan, and 11 others it said were their accomplices, for the 2024 Crocus concert hall attack that left 150 people dead.
The March 2024 shooting spree was claimed by Daesh and was the deadliest militant attack in Russia in more than two decades.
Relatives of some of the victims stood in the grand Moscow military court as the verdict was read out.
Shamsidin Fariduni, Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Makhammadsobir Fayzov and Saidakrami Rachabolizoda — all Tajik citizens who went on a shooting spree in the building before setting it on fire — looked down as the judge sentenced them to life.
Eleven other men — some Russian citizens — were also jailed for life for acting as accomplices and of having terrorist links.
Four more men — including a father and his sons — were handed sentences of between 19 and 22 years over their links with the attackers.
The gunmen entered the concert hall shortly before a show by Soviet-era rock band Picnic. They went on a shooting spree before setting fire to the building, trapping many victims. The attack wounded more than 600 people. Six children were among those killed.
Uliana Filippochkina, whose twin brother Grigory was killed in the attack, flew from Siberia’s Novosibirsk for the verdict.
She said she was “satisfied” with the ruling and that she had looked the men who killed her twin in the eyes during their final statements in the trial.
“They didn’t explain anything, they tried to escape responsibility, appealing to the fact that they had wives and children... That they were under the influence of drugs,” she said.
- ‘No remorse’ -
“There was no sympathy or remorse whatsoever,” she added.
Her brother went to the concert shortly before his 35th birthday. The family were only able to identify what was left of his body weeks later, burying his remains in Novosibirsk.
The verdict came ahead of the second anniversary of the killings.
“For us all it’s like yesterday,” Ivan Pomorin, who was filming the Crocus Hall concert at the time, told AFP.
Lawyers said some of the victims are still being treated for their wounds, while others have severe PTSD, unable to sleep, use public transport or be in crowded places.
The four gunmen — aged 20 to 31 at the time — worked in various professions, among them was a taxi driver, factory employee and construction worker.
They stood in the glass defendant’s cage, surrounded by security guards.
According to media reports, Mirzoyev’s brother was killed fighting in Syria, possibly leading to his radicalization.
Hours after the attack, Russian police brought them to court with signs of torture — including one barely conscious in a wheelchair.
- ‘Redeem guilt with blood’ -
The attack came two years into Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with Russia — bogged down by the offensive — dismissing prior US warnings of an imminent attack.
The Kremlin had suggested a Ukrainian connection at the time of the attack, but never provided evidence.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said after the verdict it was “reliably established” that the attack was “planned and committed in the interests of” Kyiv.
It accused the men of also plotting attacks in Dagestan.
TASS state news agency reported this month, citing a lawyer, that two of them — Dzhabrail Aushyev and Khusein Medov — had asked to be sent to fight in Ukraine instead of a life sentence.
Throughout its offensive, Russia has recruited prisoners for its military campaign, offering a buy-out from their sentences should they survive.
According to the lawyer quoted by TASS, Medov said he wanted to “redeem his guilt with blood.”
- Anti-migrant turn -
Russia — already undergoing a conservative social turn during the war — upped anti-migrant laws and rhetoric after the attack.
This has led to tensions with Moscow’s allies in Central Asia, some of whom have confronted Russia and called on it to respect the rights of their citizens.
Russia’s economy has for years been heavily reliant on millions of Central Asian migrants.
But their flow to Russia dipped after Moscow launched its Ukraine campaign and some Central Asians also held back from going to Russia after the post-Crocus migrant crackdowns.
