Thread: German cops to learn if attacks in Cologne, elsewhere linked; North Africans probed

German cops race to learn if Dec. 31 sexual attacks in Cologne, elsewhere linked; North Africans probed

BERLIN – German authorities need to quickly determine whether a string of New Year’s Eve sexual assaults and robberies in Cologne blamed largely on foreigners may be linked to similar offenses in other cities, the justice minister said in comments published Sunday.

Authorities and witnesses say the attackers were among about 1,000 people, mostly men, gathered at Cologne’s central train station, some of whom broke off into small groups that groped and robbed women.

“If such a horde gathers in order to commit crimes, that appears in some form to be planned,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas told the newspaper Bild. “Nobody can tell me that this was not coordinated or prepared.”

The attacks are still being investigated, but police have said their focus is on suspects of primarily North African origin, which has put pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and its open-door policy to asylum seekers. Nearly 1.1 million migrants arrived in Germany in 2015 alone.

She announced a proposal Saturday that would make it easier to deport migrants who commit crimes, which still needs parliamentary approval.

Cologne police said Sunday that 516 criminal complaints had now been filed with them in connection to the New Year’s attacks, about 40 percent of which involve allegations of sexual offenses.

They also announced that on Saturday night they arrested a 19-year-old Moroccan man on allegations he stole a 23-year-old woman’s cellphone on New Year’s, and had identified 19 other suspects by name. Police said the Moroccan, who they said has been involved in various crimes since 2013, isn’t accused of a sexual offense but the investigation is ongoing.

In a separate development that seemed likely to provide more grist for opponents of Merkel’s policies, police in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Saturday raided an apartment at a shelter for asylum-seekers in Recklinghausen that they said had been occupied by an extremist whom French police fatally shot on Thursday as he ran up to a Paris police station wielding a butcher’s knife and wearing a fake explosives vest.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in remarks Sunday that the man was also believed to have lived in Luxembourg and Switzerland.

North Rhine-Westphalia state police chief Uwe Jacob described the suspect as a small time criminal known to authorities by several aliases, who had a record that included weapons charges, drug trafficking and causing bodily harm and had spent at least a month in jail.
He said there are no indications the man was part of an extremist network, but that a self-drawn Islamic State flag was found in his room, the dpa news agency reported.

At a news conference in Duesseldorf, Jacob told reporters that the man had first entered Germany in 2013 after living for five years illegally in France, and had gone by at least seven names, identifying himself as a Tunisian, Moroccan and Georgian. He lived in several German cities and moved to Recklinghausen at the beginning of last August.

Separately, police in Hamburg are also investigating sexual assaults and thefts in the St. Pauli district similar to those in Cologne, which occurred on a smaller scale in the northern city on New Year’s Eve. Authorities in Sweden and Finland are also investigating similar incidents in their countries.

“All connections must be carefully checked,” Maas said. “There is a suspicion that a particular date was chosen with expected crowds. That would then be a new dimension.”

Of an initial 31 suspects detained by police for questioning, 18 were asylum seekers but there were also two Germans, an American and others, and none of them were accused specifically of committing sexual assaults.

Police have released few details, but Bild on Sunday said one, a 22-year-old Tunisian, was registered at a refugee center in a neighboring state, while two Moroccans, aged 18 and 23, were apparently in the country illegally, according to their attorney.

“Our clients are modern nomads,” attorney Ingo Lindemann told the newspaper. “They’re not war refugees but more like grown street children who move with the flow of refugees across Europe.”

Cologne police wouldn’t confirm the report on the three and Lindemann didn’t immediately return a phone call or an email.


German cops race to learn if Dec. 31 sexual attacks in Cologne, elsewhere linked; North Africans probed

Austria Hit With Financial Burden of Hosting Refugees Turned Back by Berlin

Austria gets no financial help from Germany for hosting asylum seekers who have been turned back by Germany, the Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — Germany has been sending hundreds of refugees back to Austria, the last point of transit, following a scandal involving men with a migrant background sexually assaulting women in several German cities.

Asked if Austria received any financial help from Germany in order to host additional refugees or planned to send the rejected asylum seekers to other EU member states, Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said "no."

He added that expulsions of failed refugees by Germany were a technical issue, not enshrined in any bilateral agreement with Austria.

"It's not agreed, but [is] just a matter of fact that people who are not accepted to cross the border to Germany do stay in Austria," Grundboeck explained.

Emergency refugee shelters are being organized in Austria to host migrants who have been turned back by Germany, Karl-Heinz Grundboeck told Sputnik.

"Places for emergency accommodation are organized by the Red Cross, in Styria, Upper Austria, Salzburg and Tyrol," he continued.

On Tuesday, Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that German authorities would ease rules to make it easier to deport immigrants who commit crimes.

Germany has been sending hundreds of failed asylum seekers a day back to Austria since the start of the year.

The measure was deemed necessary after dozens of women in the German city of Cologne were robbed and sexually assaulted on New Year's Eve by groups of aggressive men, mostly of Arab and North African origin. Several similar incidents were reported the same day in Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Berlin

Read more: Austria Hit With Financial Burden of Hosting Refugees Turned Back by Berlin

Cologne attacks: Support for refugees in Germany plummeting amid far-right protests and vigilante attacks

More Germans surveyed now say the number of asylum seekers in the country is too high

Germany’s welcoming attitude to refugees is fading fast following the New Year’s Eve attacks on women in Cologne, according to new research.

In November, just over half of respondents in a YouGov survey said they thought the number of asylum seekers in the country was too high but that figure now stands at 62 per cent.

Protests by far-right anti-Islam groups Pegida and HoGeSa have swept the country this month, despite being met by equal numbers of anti-fascist counter demonstrators.

Hundreds of right-wing protesters went on the rampage in Leipzig on Monday night, smashing windows and launching fireworks, while at least 11 refugees were attacked by a roving mob who had vowed to “clean up” Cologne the previous day.

The angry scenes are a far cry from the summer, when Angela Merkel lifted asylum restrictions for Syrian refugees – a decision that led to the arrival of 1.1 million migrants and asylum seekers last year and was credited in part for making the Chancellor Time's Person of the Year.

Her slogan – “wir schaffen das” – meaning “we can do this”, has faded with a series of reversals by the Government, which has now reintroduced border controls and is sending hundreds of refugees back to Austria every day.

“Refugees welcome”, the summer’s other defining slogan, is also heard less and less as attitudes harden following the police’s announcement that migrants were largely responsible for the mass sexual assaults and robberies seen on New Year’s Eve.

Research by YouGov for Germany’s Bild newspaper demonstrates the shift. In November, only a slim majority said the arrival figures were two high, while 42 per cent said they were acceptable and a fifth of respondents said the country could welcome more refugees.

Now, almost two thirds of those surveyed say the number of asylum seekers is too high and only 16 per cent were comfortable with the figures.

German women are more likely than men to oppose the current level of migration, which had not previously been the case, and the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults are believed to be the main reason for a 12-point jump.

Anti-sexual violence protesters have also been taking to the streets after police’s response to the attacks and Cologne mayor Henriette Reker’s controversial proposal of a “code of conduct” for women sparked a new debate about victim-blaming.

At least 19 men are currently under investigation for attacks in the city, including 10 asylum seekers, most of whom arrived in Germany after September.

In response to the alleged assault and robbery of at least 600 victims in Cologne, Ms Merkel has proposed new measures to deny the right of asylum for those who have committed crimes or are on probation in response to calls for change.

Only asylum seekers who have been sentenced to at least three years' imprisonment and will not be at risk in their countries of origin can currently be forcibly deported under German law.

The German cabinet will need to back the plans before a draft law is drawn up.

Cologne attacks: Support for refugees in Germany falling amid far-right protests and vigilante attacks