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CRIME

Swiss students ‘nearly killed’ disabled man in attack

The three Swiss students who went on a violent rampage through Munich nearly two weeks ago are being investigated for attempted murder after it emerged their attack was far more brutal than initially reported.

Published: 12 July 2009 10:41 CEST
Swiss students 'nearly killed' disabled man in attack
Photo: DPA

The 16-year-olds, who were in the Bavarian capital on a school trip after finishing their exams, could have easily killed one of their victims, state prosecutor Laurent Lafleur told Focus magazine.

He said one of their victims was a disabled man from Macedonia who the trio beat until he lost consciousness.

One of the attackers then took a run up and kicked his head which was flopping over the edge of a park bench.

“One can only speak of good luck that the man did not suffer a broken neck and die,” said Lafleur.

The students went on to attack two more men, seriously injuring one man who they beat to the ground, and then singling out a young man who they repeatedly punched.

Focus also reports that one of the Swiss students once attacked a man in the metro in Zurich, breaking his nose. He was caught on security camera and sentenced to 10 days social work and made to pay 150 Swiss Francs in compensation.

The president of their school in Küsnacht, Max Heberlein said he could offer no explanation as to why the trio had turned so violent, saying there had been no instances of fighting in the school. He said one of the three had sometimes arrived late or not done his homework, but that he knew of no reason to think they would carry out such an attack.

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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