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CRIME

Captured pirates not coming to Germany

Nine Somali men captured by a German frigate while trying to take over a cargo ship will be sent to Kenya for trial, not Germany, the Defence Ministry confirmed Saturday evening.

Published: 8 March 2009 10:17 CET
Captured pirates not coming to Germany
Photo: DPA

The men will be tried by Kenyan courts under an agreement signed Friday between that country and the European Union. The agreement lays out conditions for how suspects should be treated. Among other provisions, the agreement requires that suspects be tried “immediately” by a judge and treated humanely.

The decision to send the suspected pirates to Kenya comes after speculation Saturday that the Hamburg prosecutor’s office might choose to charge the men. The Somalis were arrested by German sailors after trying to capture the German cargo ship MV Courier last Tuesday.

German naval vessels are participating in a multinational operation off the coast of Africa to fight the growing risk of sea piracy in the area. There were roughly 250 reported pirate attacks off of the Horn of Africa in 2008, of which at least 48 resulted in ransom being paid.

Last week’s arrests was the first time that the German navy has captured sea bandits in African waters since joining the international mission.

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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