Kurdish organisations are demanding a thorough investigation after a knife attack and are warning against depoliticisation. Whether the perpetrator really sympathises with the IS is now being investigated.
Following a knife attack on a Kurdish activist in the German city of Kiel two Saturdays ago, the Schleswig-Holstein State Office of Criminal Investigation has now taken over the police investigation. A spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor’s Office told ‘nd’ that the authority is investigating whether the offence could possibly have a ‘political-religious connection’. Since Monday, new information has been available through the questioning of witnesses and ‘accompanying press coverage’. These will now be investigated.
The 28-year-old Kurd was stabbed with a knife by a Syrian and seriously, but not life-threateningly, injured. The attack took place on the fringes of a rally to mark the 10th anniversary of the liberation of Kobanê in the centre of Kiel. According to initial reports in the Kurdish media, the 25-year-old suspect is said to be a sympathiser of the terrorist militia ‘Islamic State’ (IS). However, the police refused to confirm this.
Police officers had provisionally arrested the man after he handed himself in following a phone call from the authorities. He was released at the end of the police measures and is now being investigated for causing grievous bodily harm. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, it is not certain whether the alleged perpetrator will remain at liberty: according to an initial assessment by the Public Prosecutor on standby, there were no grounds for detention. ‘This does not mean that a reassessment of the new facts may not occur at any time as part of the investigation, which is to be continued with high priority,’ the spokesperson told “nd”.
The man was travelling with a companion who had also fled the scene of the crime. This second suspect is said to have been handed over to the police by a group of Kurdish activists.
Kurdish organisations called for a thorough investigation after the attack. The Anti-Kurdish Racism Information Centre, for example, warned against trivialising the incident as a dispute ‘between Syrians and a Turk’ and emphasised that it could have been a deliberate provocation by ‘radicalised Islamists’. The police should not depoliticise the incident, as this would conceal anti-Kurdish racism.
The Kurdistan Solidarity Committee in Kiel also commented on the case and called for better protection for demonstrations by Kurdish organisations and an end to their criminalisation. Germany and the EU should reconsider their policy towards Turkey and recognise the democratic self-administration of north-east Syria. However, the committee also warns against right-wing populist instrumentalisation of the incident.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: The 28-year-old Kurd was seriously but not life-threateningly injured (ANF Deutsch).
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