Crime: After knife attack in Mannheim: deportations demanded

After the fatal knife attack in Mannheim, there are increasing calls for stricter deportations of foreign criminals. Several federal states governed by the CDU/CSU supported the proposal by Hamburg’s Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) to deport foreigners who commit serious crimes to Afghanistan and Syria in the future. FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr also told Bild: “People who show signs of Islamist activity here should also be deported to countries where this has not been possible so far, such as Afghanistan.”

Buschmann: Clear evidence of Islamist motive

A 25-year-old Afghan pulled out a knife at an anti-Islam rally on Mannheim’s market square and injured six men, including a police officer. The 29-year-old officer later died of his injuries. Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann wrote on the X platform that there is now “clear evidence of an Islamist motive.”

X-Contribution Marco Buschmann

Shortly before, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office had announced that it assumed the perpetrator’s motivation was religious and had taken over the investigation. It is assumed that the man wanted to deny people critical of Islam their right to freedom of expression, said a spokeswoman.

The case has fueled the debate about how to deal with Islamism and foreign criminals. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to make a government statement on the current security situation in the Bundestag on Thursday. This is stated in a letter from the Chancellery to Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD), which was made available to the dpa. Whether the focus will be on domestic or foreign policy remains open, however.

Deportations to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan?

Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) called on the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) to “create the conditions for the possibility of returning criminals and dangerous individuals to Syria and Afghanistan – of course, while taking constitutional consideration of basic and human rights and taking a differentiated view of individual cases.” The federal government regularly refers to a lack of diplomatic contacts – this is unacceptable.

A Hamburg initiative was announced for the next Interior Ministers’ Conference (IMK). The ministers should ask the Federal Ministry of the Interior to reassess the security situation in Afghanistan and in the region of the Syrian capital Damascus. “We must find a way to resume deportations to Afghanistan for criminals, but also for dangerous individuals and Islamist enemies of the constitution,” said Senator Grote.

“Too late, but at least,” Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) told the RND. “If Hamburg and the federal SPD had followed the proposals of the CDU-led states like Saxony last year, then deportations to Afghanistan and Syria would have taken place long ago.”

Interior Ministry sees difficult questions

The Federal Ministry of the Interior said that Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) is intensively examining options for how criminals and dangerous individuals could be deported to Afghanistan again. In these cases, Germany’s security interests must clearly outweigh the interest of the person concerned in remaining in the country. However, given the difficult security situation and the fact that there is no internationally recognized government in Afghanistan, difficult questions need to be clarified.

In Afghanistan, the Islamist Taliban regained power in the summer of 2021. In Syria, ruler Bashar Al-Assad brutally suppressed protests in 2011, and the ensuing civil war continues to this day.

The IMK chairman, Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU), told the RND: “The debate about deporting serious criminals to countries like Afghanistan and Syria has been going on for a long time. If we can now reach an agreement on this issue, that would be very welcome.” But it must also be clear “that we cannot solve all problems with deportations alone.”

CDU General Secretary calls for action plan

In a guest article in the “Welt” newspaper, CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann called for an action plan for “Political Islam”. Islamist organizations should be banned and demands for a caliphate should be prosecuted. And: “Anyone who comes to our country as a guest and seeks protection but does not abide by our legal system and tramples on our values ​​has forfeited their right of hospitality.”

In response to the Mannheim massacre, there are also calls for knife bans in certain places. “It is particularly problematic where many people come together – for example on trains or at train stations,” said the deputy leader of the Union parliamentary group Andrea Lindholz (CSU) to the “Rheinische Post”. There, “carrying knives ready for use” should be banned.

8000 people at rally

There is great sympathy for the death of the young police officer. According to the police, 8,000 people gathered in Mannheim on Monday evening for a memorial rally. Baden-Württemberg’s Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) and Federal Minister Faeser also laid flowers.

What is known about the perpetrator?

The attacker had injured five participants at a rally of the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa as well as the police officer with a knife. Another officer shot him dead; according to reports, the Afghan was not yet fit to be questioned.

According to information from the dpa, the man came to Germany as a teenager in 2013 and applied for asylum. The application was rejected in 2014. However, a deportation ban was imposed, presumably because of his young age. The perpetrator was last living in Heppenheim, Hesse, with his wife and two small children. According to information from security circles, he had not been noticed as a criminal or extremist before the crime.