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Police hunt man who shot teen daughter

An armed man is on the run in Germany a day after shooting his 13-year-old daughter to death in broad daylight on the street – reportedly in front of the rest of their family.

Published: 6 December 2011 12:40 CET

Police hunt man who shot teen daughter

Photo: DPA

Police hunting the man said he shot the girl up to six times, hitting her in the head at least once after a family mediation session with youth authorities on Monday afternoon in Stolzenau, Lower Saxony.

The girl had moved out of home due to problems within the family and was living at a state children’s home – something her father apparently wanted to reverse. Yet at the meeting with mediators, she refused to go home, police said.

He shot her shortly after the family left the office, leaving her slumped against a car in the street as he ran off.

“We wanted to initiate a conversation with the parents, in order to develop a perspective for the future,” Torsten Rötschke from the social services told Der Spiegel magazine’s website.

“There was absolutely no indication that it could come to such an escalation,” he said. “We are appalled by the incident and will now make efforts to prevent similar cases in the future.”

He said three other children still lived with the girl’s parents.

Police continued their hunt for the man on Tuesday morning using a helicopter and dogs, with a particular focus on trying to find the gun he used, which detectives say he may have thrown away. They also said he may be driving a grey VW Golf car.

An autopsy on the girl’s body was scheduled for Tuesday in Hamburg, while police have launched a murder investigation.

The family is said to have moved to Lower Saxony in 2008, from Iraq’s Kurdish region. They are said to be of the Yazidi faith – which combines elements of several faiths, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The Local/DAPD/DPA/mdm

Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

The accusations come at a time of strained relations between Moscow and the West following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the European Union’s support for Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a newly concluded government investigation found that a cyberattack targeting members of the Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28.

APT28 “is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia”, Baerbock told reporters during a visit to Australia.

“In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyberattacks in countries around the world. Russia denies being behind such actions.

The hacking attack on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD party was made public last year. Hackers exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to compromise e-mail accounts, according to Berlin.

Berlin on Friday summoned the acting charge d’affaires of the Russian embassy over the incident.

The Russian embassy in Germany said its envoy “categorically rejected the accusations that Russian state structures were involved in the given incident… as unsubstantiated and groundless”.

Arms, aerospace targeted: Berlin

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the cyber campaign was orchestrated by Russia’s military intelligence service GRU and began in 2022. It also targeted German companies in the armaments and aerospace sectors, she said.

Such cyberattacks are “a threat to our democracy, national security and our free societies”, she told a joint news conference in Prague with her Czech counterpart Vit Rakusan.

“We are calling on Russia again to stop these activities,” Faeser added.

Czech government officials said some of its state institutions had also been the target of cyberattacks blamed on APT28, again by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft Outlook in 2023.

Czech Interior Minister Rakusan said his country’s infrastructure had recently experienced “higher dozens” of such attacks.

“The Czech Republic is a target. In the long term, it has been perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy state,” he told reporters.

EU, NATO condemnation

The German and Czech findings triggered strong condemnation from the European Union.

“The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia’s continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

The EU would “make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia’s malicious behaviour in cyberspace”, he added.

State institutions, agencies and entities in other member states including in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden had been targeted by APT28 in the past, the statement added.

The latest accusations come a day after NATO expressed “deep concern” over Russia’s “hybrid actions” including disinformation, sabotage and cyber interference.

The row also comes as millions of Europeans prepare to go to the polls for the European Parliament elections in June, and concerns about foreign meddling are running high.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told AFP that “pointing a finger publicly at a specific attacker is an important tool to protect national interests”.

One of the most high-profile incidents so far blamed on Fancy Bear was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. It forced the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

In 2020, the EU imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the APT28 group over the incident.

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