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CRIME

Swift justice promised as Tugce buried

As hundreds gathered for the funeral of Tugce Albayrak, the student fatally beaten after intervening in a fight, prosecutors said they would act quickly against suspects.

Swift justice promised as Tugce buried
Pallbearers carry Tugce's coffin. Photo: DPA

The mosque of the local Turkish-Islamic cultural association (Ditib) in Wächtersbach, Hesse, played host to the funeral service for the 23-year-old student before her burial in a neigbouring town.

Wreaths and other floral tributes were left on large tables in front of the mosque with messages like "You're always in our hearts" or "It could have been my daughter".

“We're all very sad. This is a very emotional situation for us”, local Ditib chairman Hakan Akbulut said.

Hesse minister-president Volker Bouffier and Turkish Ambassador Hüseyin Avni Karslioglu attended the prayers for the good samaritan.

Meanwhile, state prosecutors in Offenbach, where Tugce was studying and the fatal attack took place, said that they would be bringing charges “quickly”.

“In criminal cases, particularly with young people, charges should be brought and the main trial begin within six months”, a spokesman said.

He added that the results of an autopsy were expected in January and that investigators were currently trying to improve the quality of a CCTV recording of the crime.

An 18-year-old man is in custody for the attack on Tugce on 15 November which led to her death two weeks later, although he is unlikely to be charged with murder.

Investigators don't yet know whether his punch or Tugce's impact on the ground caused the fatal injury to her temple.

Tugce's death, which happened after she was beaten for stepping into an altercation between several men and two women, has made her into a folk hero.

She has become the face of an online campaign for more people to have the courage of their convictions in everyday life.

And a petition has been started for Tugce to be awarded the Order of Merit for her actions.

SEE ALSO: Two girls saved by Tugce A. come forward

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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.

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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