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December 16, 2016

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German anger at Greece over Afghan violent teen

GERMANY voiced anger yesterday that Greece failed to issue a cross-border arrest warrant for an Afghan asylum seeker who is now the chief suspect in the rape and murder of a female student.

The case against Hussein K, who says he is 17, has inflamed passions in Germany, where debate is raging about how to integrate more than 1 million recently arrived refugees and migrants.

The young Afghan was arrested in Germany on December 2 over the killing of a 19-year-old female medical student two months earlier, after his DNA was found at the crime scene and he was identified on CCTV.

Authorities in both Germany and Greece confirmed yesterday that Hussein had previously done jail time in Greece for the attempted murder of a young woman, but was released early and subsequently vanished.

“This is very upsetting and we will certainly have to discuss this with the Greek side,” said German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere about the fact Greek authorities did not issue a European or international alert.

Greek media also slammed the authorities for their mishandling of the prison release program and for failing to alert the global policing agency Interpol that the teenager had fled.

Hussein had arrived in Germany in 2015, when almost 900,000 asylum seekers came to the EU’s largest economy, as an unaccompanied minor and had been living with a host family.

Only now have police confirmed, using the suspect’s fingerprints, that he had been jailed in Greece for robbing and assaulting a woman in 2013. In that attack, he stole her bag and then threw her off a cliff, leaving her badly injured.

The Afghan teen was released from Greek jail in 2015. Despite strict conditions requiring him to report to police every month, officials lost trace of him.

News of his arrest in Germany triggered angry reactions on social media with some people saying an ironic “thank you” to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel said that while any murder must be condemned, the crime should not be used to target “an entire group.”

Merkel, who will next year seek a fourth term, has faced criticism for her previous open-door policy towards refugees.


 

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