Mannheim. The Federal Public Ministry is taking over the case and the Minister of Justice speaks of Islamic motivation. In politics, a possible consequence is a tougher approach to deportations.
Following the fatal knife attack in Mannheim, calls are growing for stricter deportations of foreign criminals. Several federal states governed by the Union supported Hamburg Interior Senator Andy Grote’s (SPD) proposal to deport serious criminal aliens to Afghanistan and Syria in the future. FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr also told “Bild”: “People who become visible as Islamists here should also be deported to countries where this was not possible previously, such as Afghanistan.”
Buschmann: Clear indications of Islamic motivation
A 25-year-old Afghan man pulled a knife at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim’s market square and injured six men, including a police officer. The 29-year-old officer later died from his injuries. Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann wrote on Platform X that there were now “clear indications of an Islamic motivation.”
X contribution Marco Buschmann
Shortly before, the Federal Public Ministry had announced that it assumed that the author’s motivation was religious and had taken over the investigation. It is assumed the man wanted to deny people who criticize Islam their right to freedom of expression, a spokeswoman said.
The case has fueled debate over how to deal with Islam and foreign criminals. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to make a government statement on the current security situation in the Bundestag on Thursday. This emerges from a letter from the Chancellery to the President of the Bundestag, Bärbel Bas (SPD), which is available to the dpa. However, it was not clear whether the focus would be on domestic or foreign policy.
Deportations to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan?
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) called on the German Editorial Network (RND) to “create the conditions for the possibility of returning criminals and dangerous people to Syria and Afghanistan – of course, with a constitutional consideration of fundamental rights and humans and with a differentiated consideration of individual cases.” The federal government regularly refers to the lack of diplomatic contacts – which is unacceptable.
An initiative from Hamburg has become known for the upcoming Interior Ministers’ Conference (IMK). The group of ministers is expected to ask the Federal Ministry of the Interior to reassess the security situation in Afghanistan and the Syrian capital region, Damascus. “We have to find a way to resume deportations to Afghanistan of criminals, but also of dangerous people and Islamic enemies of the Constitution,” said Senator Grote.
“Too late, but at least,” Saxon Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) told RND. “If Hamburg and the federal SPD had followed the proposals of Union-led states such as Saxony last year, then there would have been deportations to Afghanistan and Syria long ago.”
Ministry of the Interior sees difficult issues
The Federal Ministry of the Interior said that Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) was intensively examining ways in which criminals and dangerous people could be deported back to Afghanistan. In these cases, Germany’s security interests must clearly outweigh the interest of the person concerned in remaining. However, given the difficult security situation and the fact that there is no internationally recognized government in Afghanistan, difficult questions need to be clarified.
The Islamic Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. In Syria, ruler Bashar Al-Assad brutally suppressed protests in 2011, and the civil war that followed continues to this day.
IMK chairman, Brandenburg Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU), told RND: “The debate about deporting serious criminals to countries like Afghanistan and Syria has been going on for a long time. If we can now reach an agreement on this issue, that would be very welcome.” But it must also be clear that “we cannot solve all problems with deportations alone”.
CDU Secretary General calls for action plan
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann called for an action plan for “Political Islam” in a guest article in “Welt”. Islamic organizations should be prohibited from processing the demands of the caliphate. And: “Whoever comes to our country as a guest and seeking protection, but does not adhere to our legal system and tramples on our values, has lost the right to hospitality.”
In response to the massacre in Mannheim, there are also calls for a ban on knives in certain locations. “It is particularly problematic when many people come together – for example on trains or at railway stations,” Deputy Union Parliamentary Group Leader Andrea Lindholz (CSU) told the “Rheinische Post”. “Carrying knives within reach” should be prohibited there.
8,000 people at the rally
There is great sympathy for the death of the young police officer. According to police, 8,000 people gathered in Mannheim on Monday night for a remembrance rally. Baden-Württemberg’s Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) and Federal Minister Faeser also laid flowers.
What is known about the perpetrator?
The attacker injured five participants in a demonstration by the anti-Islamic Pax Europa movement and the police officer with a knife. Another police officer shot him; According to information, the Afghan has not yet been interrogated.
According to information from the dpa, the man arrived in Germany as a teenager in 2013 and asked for asylum. The request was rejected in 2014. However, a deportation ban was imposed, likely due to his young age. The perpetrator recently lived in Heppenheim, Hesse, with his wife and two young children. According to security information, he was neither a criminal nor an extremist before the crime.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240604-99-265817/2 (dpa)