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Charges filed in Berlin metro beating case

Two weeks after a brutal attack at a Berlin metro station, the main 18-year-old suspect has been officially charged with severely assaulting the victim.

Published: 5 May 2011 15:39 CEST

Charges filed in Berlin metro beating case

Photo: DPA

The young man, previously identified as Torben P., is accused of attacking the 29-year-old man at Friedrichstraße U-Bahn station. In a surveillance video, Torben P. appears to stomp on the man’s head repeatedly. The victim was knocked unconscious and is currently recovering.

The assailant and another suspect subsequently turned themselves into police but Torben P. was immediately released on bail by a judge, prompting outrage throughout Germany.

Gisela von der Aue, Berlin’s justice minister, told RBB Inforadio that prosecutors have responded quickly to the case. Charges of versuchter Totschlag, which is similar to causing grievous bodily harm are being pursued.

Martin Stelzer, a spokesman for the city’s prosecutors office, confirmed the charges, but said he couldn’t elaborate until they have officially been served on the suspect. It is not clear whether charges have also been filed against the second suspect.

But von der Aue defended the decision to release Torben P. from jail, saying the rule of law had been closely followed.

The Local/DAPD/DPA/mdm

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Aide to German far-right MEP arrested on suspicion of spying for China

The man, named only as Jian G., stands accused of sharing information about negotiations at European Parliament with a Chinese intelligence service and of spying on Chinese opposition figures in Germany, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

On the website of the European Parliament, Jian Guo is listed as an accredited assistant to MEP Maximilian Krah, the far-right AfD party’s lead candidate in the forthcoming EU-wide elections.

He is a German national who has reportedly worked as an aide to Krah in Brussels since 2019.

The suspect “is an employee of a Chinese secret service”, prosecutors said.

“In January 2024, the accused repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament to his intelligence service client.

“He also spied on Chinese opposition members in Germany for the intelligence service.”

The suspect was arrested in the eastern German city of Dresden on Monday and his homes were searched, they added.

The accused lives in both Dresden and Brussels, according to broadcasters ARD, RBB and SWR, who broke the news about the arrest.

The AfD said the allegations were “very disturbing”.

“As we have no further information on the case, we must wait for further investigations by federal prosecutors,” party spokesman Michael Pfalzgraf said in a statement.

The case is likely to fuel concern in the West about aggressive Chinese espionage.

It comes after Germany on Monday arrested three German nationals suspected of spying for China by providing access to secret maritime technology.

READ ALSO: Germany arrests three suspected of spying for China

China’s embassy in Berlin “firmly” rejected the allegations, according to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.

According to German media, the two cases are not connected.

In Britain on Monday, two men were charged with handing over “articles, notes, documents or information” to China between 2021 and last year.

Police named the men as Christopher Berry, 32, and Christoper Cash, 29, who previously worked at the UK parliament as a researcher.

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