Germany’s police are in mourning. After the deadly knife assault in Mannheim (Baden-Württemberg), German police autos are driving nationwide with black ribbons.
On Friday followingnoon, a 25-year-old Afghan attacked and injured a number of members of an anti-Islam group who had arrange an data stand in downtown Mannheim with a knife.
The police patrol that was deployed to protect the stand intervened instantly. One of many law enforcement officials – 29-year-old Rouven L. – was severely injured by knife wounds to the pinnacle and neck. Rouven L. died on Sunday night within the Mannheim College Hospital.
The police should not the one ones who’re dismayed. On Monday night, a big non-partisan rally occurred in Mannheim underneath the motto “Mannheim stands collectively”. Earlier on Monday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had introduced strict motion in opposition to extremists throughout a go to to the flood-affected areas in Higher Bavaria. “If extremists now limit the liberty to maneuver round and categorical one’s opinion, then they need to know that we’re their hardest opponents,” stated the Chancellor.
Rouven L. misplaced his life for peace and safety. He was on obligation as a result of he was defending democracy and the precise of everybody to specific their very own opinion, no matter whether or not anybody else likes it, stated Scholz. Deputy authorities spokesman Wolfgang Büchner quoted Scholz in Berlin as saying: “An assault on a police officer on obligation is an assault on all of us.”
Baden-Württemberg’s Inside Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU), who took half within the rally in Mannheim within the night, careworn that the police would “at all times and without end protect an honorable reminiscence” of Rouven L.
Perpetrator not but questioned
Resulting from his accidents, the suspected perpetrator mightn’t be questioned. The 25-year-old, who got here to Germany in 2014 and has a authorized residence allow, has not but come to the eye of the police. He’s married and has two youngsters.
The goal of his assault was the anti-Islam motion “Pax Europa” (BPE) and its activist Michael Stürzenberger (59), who was additionally severely injured within the face and thigh within the knife assault on Friday.
Stürzenberger was as soon as a member of the Bavarian CSU earlier than he turned to right-wing populist teams in 2011. “Pax Europa” says it needs to lift consciousness regarding what the affiliation calls the “creeping Islamization of Europe” and, amongst different issues, opposes the development of recent mosques in Germany.
The Afghan offender must serve a potential jail sentence in Germany. Whether or not and when a overseas offender is deported following serving his jail sentence relies upon, amongst different issues, on the state of affairs in his nation of origin on the time of his launch from jail.
Politically, voices in Germany’s SPD and FDP additionally spoke out on Monday calling for deportations to Afghanistan to be made potential once more.
Karner: Extremism as a hazard
On Monday, Austria’s Inside Minister Gerhard Karner (VP) referred to the most recent report by the Workplace for the Safety of the Structure, which confirmed that Islamist extremism and the hazard posed by particular person perpetrators have been the areas that posed a specific risk. This has now been proven in Germany. “We’ll do all the things we are able to with the technique of the constitutional state to forestall one thing like this,” stated Karner.
