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CRIME

Asylum seeker sentenced to jail for random attacks in Amberg

An 18-year-old asylum seeker who carried out random attacks on people in the Bavarian town of Amberg in the lead up to New Year’s Eve 2018 has been handed a jail sentence.

Asylum seeker sentenced to jail for random attacks in Amberg
The centre of Amberg. Photo: DPA

The Iranian man was given a jail term of two years and seven months. Three other defendants were handed suspended sentences of between six and 11 months from the court, reported German media. 

A total of 15 people were injured during the violence which took place on December 29th last year.

The men, who are from Iran and Afghanistan, said they had been under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the attacks. During the incident the men physically assaulted several people in the town, with one hospitalized for head wounds. 

The case became a hot political topic in Germany, with calls for asylum seekers who commit crimes to be deported more easily. It also led to far-right groups patrolling the Bavarian town.

As The Local reported at the beginning of January, far-right extremists started patrolling the streets of the town after the violence happened as part of so-called “neighbourhood defence groups”.

Meanwhile, Bavarian politicians condemned the attacks by the young men. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said that he had been “shaken up” by the news. “This excess of violence is unacceptable,” he added.

Seehofer’s deputy at the Interior Ministry, Stephan Mayer, said that there would be consequences for the country’s refugee policies.

“Any asylum seeker who commits a criminal offence, especially if they commit crimes against life and limb, against property or of a sexual nature, has forfeited their right to hospitality and must leave Germany immediately,” Mayer told Bild newspaper at the time.

“In order to protect the population, perpetrators of violence should also be able to be placed under maximum control — for example through residence obligations, reporting obligations and electronic ankle restraints,” he added.

Member comments

  1. So they get a smack on the hand and go about with their backwards ways. Jailed and deported would have sent a more important message.

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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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