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CRIME

Exchange student ‘murderer’ stays silent

The alleged murderer of an exchange student in southern Germany stayed silent in the dock on Tuesday on the first day of his trial.

Published: 23 April 2014 08:25 CEST
Exchange student 'murderer' stays silent
Police search the area near where Gabriele's body was found in October 2013. Photo: DPA

Emil S., 41, is accused of strangling a Lithuanian student to death on October 3rd last year while she was on an exchange in Baden-Württemberg.

Gabriele Z. was studying at Mannheim University and was returning from a movie night when the builder allegedly attacked her and strangled her with a scarf.

He is also suspected of having raped and robbed her.

The 20-year-old student had only recently arrived in Germany for the year-long exchange programme and was on her way home from the film night at the university. Her body was found under a bridge in the city centre.

Emil S. is also accused of attacking and robbing a 48-year-old woman in summer 2013 as well as two girls aged 12 and 17 shortly after the death of Gabriele Z.

The trial at Mannheim Court is expected to last until mid-July. 

SEE ALSO: 'Satanists' on trial for taxi driver murder

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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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