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CRIME

Headless body of homeless man found in Koblenz graveyard

German police are investigating the gruesome death of a homeless man after his decapitated body was found in a cemetery in southwest Germany.

Published: 29 March 2018 09:10 CEST
Headless body of homeless man found in Koblenz graveyard
Victim Gerd Michael Straten. Photo: Polizeipräsidium Koblenz

Victim Gerd Michael Straten, 59, is thought to have been living on the street for several years, police in Rhineland Palatinate told press late on Wednesday evening.

Police said Straten had been sleeping regularly in the central grave yard where his headless body was found.

He was often seen walking during the day in the centre of Koblenz, a historic university city on the banks of the Rhine river.

The victim was last seen alive last Thursday near Saarplatz not far from the river, police said.

No suspects have yet been identified in the case, which is being investigated by a special commission. 

Police are appealing to the public for further information.

CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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