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CRIME

Police hunt man after woman horribly mutilated

Berlin police are hunting the boyfriend of a woman who was found tied to a chair in the family home with serious mutilations to her face and chest.

Police hunt man after woman horribly mutilated
Photo: DPA

A man walking down the street in the Schöneberg district of the city on Tuesday afternoon heard cries for help, Berlin’s state prosecutor told The Local.

“She had managed to drag herself to the window and was calling for help despite being tied to a chair, gagged and having suffered terrible mutilating injuries,” said Martin Steltner, the prosecutor’s spokesman.

Her ten-year-old daughter had also been tied to a chair and gagged but was physically unharmed.

“It would seem we are dealing with a crime of jealousy. It’s horrific.”

Steltner said the 36-year-old woman was a refugee from Iran. “It’s a terrible situation, terrible,” he said. Her boyfriend had Dutch citizenship but was originally from Iraq, he said.

“He is on the run,” he added, confirming the 45-year-old was the main suspect in the case. The woman’s husband, who does not live in Berlin, is not a suspect.

She was taken to hospital, and is said to be out of danger. Her daughter suffered severe shock and was placed in the care of city authorities.

One neighbour is said to have heard a woman screaming.

“I saw how medics carried a woman covered in blood into an ambulance,” she told the Tagesspiegel. The woman and her daughter were said to have only recently moved into the building.

The Local/hc

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TERRORISM

Germany to tighten law on deporting foreigners who glorify terror acts

The German government on Wednesday agreed measures making it easier to deport foreigners who glorify acts of terror after a surge in online hate posts during the Gaza war.

Germany to tighten law on deporting foreigners who glorify terror acts

Under the new rules, foreigners could face deportation for social media comments that glorify or condone a single terrorist act, according to a draft law agreed by the cabinet.

At the moment, it is necessary to express support for several acts.

After Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the Gaza war, there was a surge in hate posts on social media in Germany with officials saying Islamists in particular were responsible.

The fatal stabbing last month of a police officer by an Afghan asylum seeker in Mannheim also triggered a surge of such posts, fuelling the debate on deportations.

“It is very clear to us that Islamist agitators who are mentally living in the Stone Age have no place in our country,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Funke media group, ahead of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.

“Anyone who does not have a German passport and glorifies terrorist acts here must — wherever possible — be expelled”.

Glorifying acts of terror online fuels a climate of violence that can encourage extremists and violent criminals, according to the draft law, which still needs to be passed by parliament.

Convictions have already been made over some social media posts. An imam in Munich was this month fined 4,500 euros ($4,800) for posting on Facebook that “everyone has their own way of celebrating the month of October”, on the day of the Hamas attack.

In parliament following the Mannheim attack, Chancellor Olaf Scholz also called for those who celebrate acts of terror to face deportation.

Glorifying terrorist offences amounted to a “slap in the face for the victims, their families and our democratic order”, he said.

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