Kurd extradited to Germany after ‘confessing’ to rape and murder of teenage girl
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Ali Bashar, a failed Kurdish asylum seeker, has been extradited to Germany to stand trial after confessing to the rape and murder of 14-year-old Susanna Maria Feldman in the German city of Wiesbaden. He had fled to Erbil with his family on false identity papers.
Bashar was detained by police in Duhok on Friday after Germany’s interior ministry contacted the Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Interior.
Duhok police chief Tariq Ahmed told Rudaw the accused, while in custody, “confessed to the crime of killing a 14 year-old German girl after he raped the girl.”
German police began investigating after Feldman’s mother reported her missing from her home in Wiesbaden on May 23. Her body was found at a nearby railroad track.
German prosecutor Achim Thoma said the cause of death was strangulation.
Bashar had been living in a center for refugees with relatives in the same city near Frankfurt.
AFP reported he arrived in Germany in 2015 with his parents and five siblings. The agency added his asylum request was rejected in December 2016, but he obtained temporary residency pending his appeal.
In this period, he had several run-ins with the police for alleged robbery, possession of an illegal knife, and for fighting.
He was also a suspect in the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl living in the same refugee shelter, according to AFP.
“The girl was raped by an Ali. There were four Alis living in the refugee home,” said Stefan Mueller, the West Hesse Highlands police chief.
Rudaw spoke with a Kurdish coworker of Ali in Wiesbaden on Friday.
“More than half and a year ago, this boy came here to work at our company. He introduced himself as a person from Zakho,” said the source who wished to remain anonymous.
Zakho is the second-largest city in Duhok province.
“A few days ago our manager came with some police officers. They showed me a picture of Ali and asked me whether I know him or not. I said I know him and he is from Zakho,” the source added.
Immigration and asylum have become highly politicized issues in Germany. Last week, pro- and anti-immigration protests were held simultaneously in the capital.
In Germany, asylum seeking peaked at 890,000 in 2015. It dropped to 280,000 in 2016, and 186,644 in 2017 — due in part to a deal between the European Union and Turkey for the latter to provide shelter to refugees in exchange for billions of euros.
Although Iraq and Germany do not have a formal extradition treaty, the 20-year-old was put on a Frankfurt-bound Lufthansa flight at Erbil International Airport on Sunday evening, AFP reports. He faces a remand hearing on arrival.
Speaking from Frankfurt, Rudaw’s Zinar Shino says Bashar will be transferred to Wiesbaden.
Bashar was detained by police in Duhok on Friday after Germany’s interior ministry contacted the Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Interior.
Duhok police chief Tariq Ahmed told Rudaw the accused, while in custody, “confessed to the crime of killing a 14 year-old German girl after he raped the girl.”
German police began investigating after Feldman’s mother reported her missing from her home in Wiesbaden on May 23. Her body was found at a nearby railroad track.
German prosecutor Achim Thoma said the cause of death was strangulation.
Bashar had been living in a center for refugees with relatives in the same city near Frankfurt.
AFP reported he arrived in Germany in 2015 with his parents and five siblings. The agency added his asylum request was rejected in December 2016, but he obtained temporary residency pending his appeal.
In this period, he had several run-ins with the police for alleged robbery, possession of an illegal knife, and for fighting.
He was also a suspect in the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl living in the same refugee shelter, according to AFP.
“The girl was raped by an Ali. There were four Alis living in the refugee home,” said Stefan Mueller, the West Hesse Highlands police chief.
Rudaw spoke with a Kurdish coworker of Ali in Wiesbaden on Friday.
“More than half and a year ago, this boy came here to work at our company. He introduced himself as a person from Zakho,” said the source who wished to remain anonymous.
Zakho is the second-largest city in Duhok province.
“A few days ago our manager came with some police officers. They showed me a picture of Ali and asked me whether I know him or not. I said I know him and he is from Zakho,” the source added.
Immigration and asylum have become highly politicized issues in Germany. Last week, pro- and anti-immigration protests were held simultaneously in the capital.
In Germany, asylum seeking peaked at 890,000 in 2015. It dropped to 280,000 in 2016, and 186,644 in 2017 — due in part to a deal between the European Union and Turkey for the latter to provide shelter to refugees in exchange for billions of euros.