Knife attack in Stralsund: Attacker expressed xenophobia | NDR.de – News

by Frank Breuner

At the end of May, a German man injured an Italian citizen with a pocket knife in a Stralsund bar. While the state's Ministry of the Interior has so far refused to see any xenophobic background for the crime, the public prosecutor's office confirmed that the accused had already attracted attention in the past with similar statements.

No knowledge of xenophobic statements for weeks

When he was arrested, the then 64-year-old man is said to have told police officers that he was German and that he had only acted in this way because the victim, an Italian of Tunisian descent, had spoken to German women in the bar. The Italian suffered a stab wound that was two centimeters long and one and a half centimeters deep. This is how the Stralsund public prosecutor's office described its investigation results on Friday. This is quite remarkable, because the authorities will have to get over it for weeks, after initially knowing nothing about any xenophobic remarks by the alleged perpetrator.

Accused already conspicuous

However, an eyewitness had reported to NDR a few days after the knife attack that the attacker had said to the police as he was being led away: “I did that for Germany.” And further investigation results now point in this direction: Even before the night of the crime, the man had been noticed with statements such as “Foreigners out” or “Foreigners don't belong in this bar,” according to the public prosecutor's office. At the time of the crime, the accused was heavily intoxicated, and a blood alcohol test showed that he had a blood alcohol level of 2.33 per mille.

Interior Minister MV saw no xenophobic motive

However, the findings of the public prosecutor's office mean that the state government, or more precisely the Ministry of the Interior in Schwerin, must now ask itself uncomfortable questions. The ministry responsible for the police also did not classify the knife attack as a xenophobic act. In response to a corresponding small request from the Green parliamentary group, Interior Minister Christian Pegel (SPD) replied at the end of July that “these latest findings” could not yet be “consolidated in a reliable manner”.

Contradictory statements from the authorities

The Green Party's parliamentary group leader, Constanze Oehlrich, also wanted to know from the Interior Ministry whether the police officers who had taken the accused away had been questioned about the exclamation “I did that for Germany”. Pegel replied: “The police officers who were deployed and questioned did not observe anything of this kind.” However, this statement can hardly be upheld after the statement from the public prosecutor's office. Did the police not take the alleged perpetrator's statement seriously because he was drunk? Or did the investigating authorities neglect to ask the relevant questions? The eyewitness, who contacted NDR a few days after the knife attack, was surprised that he was not initially asked about this during his first telephone interview.

Experts criticized investigative errors

He was equally surprised that the authorities did not initially make the crime public. It was only when NDR asked the public prosecutor's office about ten days after the crime because of a corresponding tip-off that the case was confirmed. “You can assume that something was being covered up,” said the renowned criminologist Professor Thomas Feltes from the Ruhr University Bochum to NDR. And the former head of the Neubrandenburg police station, Siegfried Stang, accused the investigators of making serious mistakes. The search of the accused's apartment did not take place until nine days after the crime, during which time important evidence could have been removed from the accommodation, according to the former criminal director Stang.

Imprisonment of up to ten years possible

The German, who was 64 at the time of the crime, is now being charged with grievous bodily harm. Since the man only stabbed once, there was no intention to kill, according to the public prosecutor. The authorities do not consider the case to be a politically motivated crime, pointing out that when assessing the mental state of the accused, who has no previous convictions, his “significant intoxication” must be taken into account. In principle, the criminal court could impose a prison sentence of up to ten years for grievous bodily harm.

More information

The cell phone is said to have been secured on the night of the crime six weeks ago, but the public prosecutor's office has not yet received the analysis. more

Police scientist Feltes suspects that the attack in a bar in Stralsund was kept out of the public eye due to investigative errors. more

Should a knife attack by a German on an Italian in a bar in the old town be covered up by the authorities? A witness reports on the events in May. more