MONDAY, April 11: MAN ROBBED IN NEUNKIRCHEN
First He Just Asked for a Light – Then He Pulled a Gun and Mugged a Man
NEUNKIRCHEN/SAAR. This morning, an armed robbery occurred on the open streets of Neunkirchen in the Saarland.
The victim was walking from the city center of Neunkirchen towards the Ringstraße just this morning, April 11. At about 8.00 a.m., he was walking past the bus stop at the unemployment office when a male person behind him addressed him in a Neunkirchen accent, asking for a „light.“
When the victim turned around to hand the person a light, he was threatened by the robber with a black pistol and asked to hand over all valuables, including his cell phone.
After the victim had handed over his wallet, the robber fled towards the city center of Neunkirchen.
Description:
– roughly 25 years old
– 1,70 – 1,75 Meters tall
– Saarland accent/Neunkirchen accent
– no mask
– blue or black hoodie with zipper
– hood pulled foreward
– woolen cap under hood
– no glasses
– round face
– no beard
According to the victim, several people were on the opposite side of the street, at the bus stop, and could have witnessed the incident.
Witnesses are being asked to contact the Neunkirchen Police or any other police station.
Wanna read it in German? Click here.
+++
TRUESDAY, April 12: SUSPECT WANTED AFTER ATTEMPTED HOMICIDE
Trier Police: Manhunt After Attempted Homicide in AfA Hermeskeil
TRIER/HERMESKEIL. The Trier Police and the Trier Public Prosecutor’s Department have put out mug shots to find the culprit of an attempted homicide in the Aufnahmeeinrichtung für Asylbegehrende (AfA/Asylum Seeker Accommodation Center) in Hermeskeil, as the police announced. The case will be presented to the public tomorrow, April 13, in the TV show „Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst“ („Case XY … Unsolved“).
Police and prosecutors hope for leads as to the whereabouts of the culprit of the aforementioned attempted homicide, which was committed on Sunday, March 27, in the accommodation center in Hermeskeil.
According to the results of the investigation so far, the victim, a 27-year-old Lebanese man, was attacked on Sunday, March 27, at about 9 p.m., on the premises of the AfA Hermeskeil by three Georgian citizens, ages 28, 32, and 33. The suspects were armed with knives. In the course of the confrontation, the victim was severely wounded by a stab by one of the attackers. Another stab by another one of the attackers was prevented by a witness. The victim’s wound was life-threatening. He has to undergo immediate surgery at the Brüderkrankenhaus hospital in Trier during the night. By now, his life is no longer in danger.
Based on the current state of the investigations, it is assumed that a verbal dispute between one of the suspects and the victim a couple of hours earlier was the reason for the attack.
Upon request of the Public Proescutor’s Department, the Local District Court Trier issued a European arrest warrant against the accused because of attempted homicide. A manhunt throughout Europe was initiated.
The two 28- and 32-year-old suspects were arrested Tuesday, April 5, near Metz, France, by French police officers. The third Georgian suspect is still on the run, his whereabouts unknown.
The suspect is Rostom KOZOLASHVILI, born September 29, 1988, in Tbilisi, Georgia. He is approximately 1,79 meters tall, weighing roughly 62 kilograms (136 lbs), skinny with a receding hairline.
The police points out that the suspect may be armed.
The Public Prosecutor’s Department Trier offers a reward of 2.000 euros for hints leading to the apprehension of the 33-year-old Georgian citizen.
The police asks:
Who can give hints as to the whereabouts of the suspect? Who has seen the suspect?
If you have hints, please call the Criminal Investigation Department of the Trier Police unter 0651-9779-2480. If you would like to give hints, but remain anonymous, please call 0152-28854968.
The payment of the reward to the entitled will be decided excluding the jurisdiction of a court. The reward will only be paid to private citizens, not to civil servants, who are fulfilling their professional duties in the course of the persecution of a crime. Direct victims of the crime are also excluded. The reward may be paid anonymously through a middleman.
Wanna read it in German? Click here.
+++
WEDNESDAY, April 13: COUPLE MAY GET BURIED IN PRIVATE CHAPEL
Trier Court: Couple from the Eifel Gets Permission for Burial Site in Private Chapel
TRIER/BITBURG. A married couple from the Bitburger Land Community wanted to get buried in a chapel on their private property. But in the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, people are legally required to get buried on an cemetery – the legal committee of Bitburg-Prüm County therefore turned to couple’s request down last November. The couple took the matter to court – and has now won a victory.
The 7th chamber of the Trier Administrative Court has ruled that the Bitburg-Prüm County authorities must grant permission to the claimant for the establishment of a private burial site to be used for two urn-graves within the chapel on their private premisses.
The county had refused the request on the grounds that because of the common awe of death and the preservation of the peace of the dead, a burial on a private site could only be allowed in extremely atypical circumstances or cases of hardship. And that, according to the county, was not the case with the claimant. The desire to be buried in their private chapel did not constitute sufficient grounds for an exception. The difficulties concerning the maintenance of graves in a cemetery, invoked by the claimant, were common in the cases of many deceased people und could therefore not be seen as constituting exceptional circumstances, the county argued.
The judges did not follow that line of reasoning and ruled instead that the county had to grant the requested permission. The court’s opinion states that according to relevant state law – against the validity of which there are no constitutional doubts – private burial sites may only be established if there is just cause or interest to do so or if no public interests or interests of third parties deserving of protection are impaired. These conditions are fulfilled in the court’s view. Because of present developments in society, the concern that society needed protection from constant confrontation with death since it could cause unsettlement or negative psychological consequences carried much less weight than it did before.
This aspect prohibited the continuation of the highly restrictive interpretation of the relevant provisions, employed in earlier court rulings on the matter in Rhineland-Palatinate. Instead, this aspect in and of itself allowed to assume a prohibitive public interest only if the confrontation with death was forced upon society, transgressed the normal level, or indicated that, even in light of the more open attitudes in society towards death today, unsettlement or even psychological harm within the population could occur. This, however, was unlikely in the present case.
Furthermore, neither disturbances of the peace of the dead nor public health threats were to be expected in the court’s opinion. Additionally, there was just interest in the establishment of a private burial site in the case of the claimant because the claimant owned a site particularly suited for urn-graves in the shape of his private chapel, a site in which the funeral could take place in an appropriate and respectful way.
The parties may appeal against this ruling within this month to the Upper Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Wanna read it in German? Click here here.
+++
Thursday, April 14: EXTREMISTS PLANNING TO OVERTH
Rhineland-Palatinate: Telegram Group Believed to Have Planned Kidnapping of Lauterbach And Overthrow of the Government
ROW THE GOVERNMENT
Investigators have bagged a group believed to have planned attacks on Germany’s energy grid and the abduction of Federal Health Minister Lauterbach. The members were more than just „weirdos,“ authorities said.
MAINZ. Members of a Telegram group active all over Germany, composed of so-called „Reichsbürger“ („imperial citizens“, a far-right movement) and people opposed to Covid-related restrictions, is believed to have planned terrorist bombings in Germany an the abduction of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD/Social Democrats).
Their intention was to strike fear into the hearts of the population and use the ensuing chaos to seize power in Germany, investigators in Mainz said on Thursday.
„We are dealing with a combination of conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, but also imperial citizens, a combination we haven’t seen before,“ Johannes Kunz, President of the State Office of Criminal Investigation of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate („Landeskriminalamt“/LKA), said. There had been connections to other far-right circles in individual cases. „They wanted to seize political power in Germany,“ Koblenz Chief Public Prosecutor Jürgen Braun added.
In a nationwide crackdown, four suspects were arrested on Wednesday. The two main suspects are a 55-year-old man from Neustadt an der Weinstraße in Rhineland-Palatinate and a 54-year-old man from Falkensee in the State of Brandenburg. The two men and others are charged with planning a terrorist attack and the illegal possession of weapons. They will be presented to a custodial judge on Thursday.
In the crackdown, 22 firearms were seized, among them a Kalashnikov assault rifle, as well as ammunition, cash, bars of gold, silver coins, forged vaccination certificates and forged Covid test certificates.
Rhineland-Palatinate was at the center of the police operation, with five objects searched. Three more objects were searched in Bavaria and Lower Saxony, two in North Rhine-Westphaila, Saxony, and Thuringia. Searches were also conducted in Baden-Württemberg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Brandenburg. A total of 270 police officers were part of the operation, including special operations units, as well as three public prosecutors. The arrest of the 55-year-old main suspect was made during the staged handover of a firearm.
According to the investigators, the Telegram group called itself „Vereinte Patrioten“ („United Patriots“), but sometimes they referred to themselves also by the name „Deutschland Tag X“ („Germany Day X“) or by other names. The group, which is belived to have about 70 members, had intended to start with a „Operation Blackout,“ which would have meant attacks on power supply lines and and power transformation substations, in order to make the energy grid collapse. Afterwards, they intended to kidnap Federal Health Minister Lauterbach in what was called „Operation Klabautermann.“
„They don’t see it as a kidnapping, but as an arrest, in which a warrant would be read,“ LKA-Chief Kunz said about the plan. Lauterbach had probably been selected as the target because there were numerous deniers of the Covid pandemic and opponents of governmental measures against the pandemic in the group, General State Prosecutor Braun said. They had made „very concrete plans.“ According to the investigators, several abductions „of well-known personalities of public life“ had been planned, though only Lauterbach was singled out by name. As a thrid step, the group intended to topple the German government.
The problem with investigations like this was always to determine wether the authorities were only dealing with „weirdos“, who wanted to show off on the internet and brag to their co-ideologists, Braun explained. „In this case, however, it was different, namely when it came to actually acquiring the weapons.“ The group had acquired both money and weapons. „That’s when it became clear to us: We’re not just dealing with weirdos, but with dangerous criminals, who are willing to put their plans into action and are probably capable of doing so.“
According to LKA-Chief Kunz, the group repeatedly expressed its disdain for the Federal Republic of Germany. Among other things, members expressed the view that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not just attack Ukraine, but also invade Germany to improve the situation here.
According to the authorities, investigations had been ongoing since last October. The authorities in Rhineland-Palatinate are in charge since the main suspect is a resident of the state. Altogether, the investigators spoke of twelve German citizens ages 41 to 55, who were suspects in the case.
According to the LKA, there was „very close, tight, and early cooperation“ with the General Federal Prosecutor, the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Offices for the Protection of the Constitution of the various states, and the Federal Police. The General Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe was offered to take charge of the investigation several times, the Koblenz General State Prosecutor said. Until now, however, he hasn’t taken over the case. „However, that might still happen, depending on the analysis of the evidence,“ he added.
Federal Health Minister Lauterbach said he was „shocked“ by the reports of a possible kidnapping of him. As he was visiting a hospital in Schleswig-Holstein on Thursday, Lauterbach thanked the investigators and the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation „for the great protection and investigations. I have benefitted greatly from it, and I am very grateful,“ Lauterbach said. He said he couldn’t comment on the state of the investigations. The case showed that Corona protests had not only become radicalized, but were now in part about destabilizing the government and democracy.
Wanna read it in German? Click here.
+++
FRIDAY, April 15: CAR ENTHUSIASTS AT THE NÜRBURGRING RACE TRACK
Car Friday: Tens of Thousands of Car Enthusiasts at the Nürburgring Race Track on Good Friday
NÜRBURG. Tens of thousands of car enthusiasts from the car tuning community were present around the Nürburgring race track in the Eifel on Good Friday.
„That’s partly due to the nice weather and the end of Covid restrictions,“ a spokesperson for the police in Mayen declared on Friday. Early in the morning, the first parking lots were already completely full. Some had come the day before to be a part of the event known as „Car Friday“ among car enthusiasts.
On Friday, the police increased spot checks on the traffic to prevent disturbances and illegal races. With the exception of several traffic jams and some rear-end collisions, the traffic situation remained mostly calm. „Our measures are working,“ said the police spokesperson. When looking for drivers speeding on the access roads to the race track, officers caught one driver at 140 kilometers per hour where only 70 were allowed, according to the spokesperson.
Officers of the Koblenz and Trier police also increased spot checks on Friday, but had no unusual violations to report until the afternoon. The checks focused primarily on loud and fast cars from the car tuning community, „typical Car Friday cars,“ as a spokesperson for the Koblenz Police explained.
Wanna read it in German? Click here.
+++
SATURDAY, April 16: CYCLIST SEVERELY INJURED
Eifel: Cyclist Severely Injured as He Tried to Evade Cat – Rushed to Hospital in Helicopter
JÜNKERATH. On Friday, April 15, an accident involving a cyclist occurred in the Kölner Straße in Jünkerath.
According to witnesses so far, the man, coming from Stadtkyll, was riding his bike on the Kölner Straße in Jünkerath towards Birgel as a cat ran onto the road directly in front of him. As he tried to evade the cat, the cyclist fell and hurt his head. The injured cyclist was cared for by first aiders until paramedics arrived. He was brought to a hospital by a rescue helicopter.
Witnesses, who have observed the accident, are being asked to contact the police station in Prüm (phone: 06551-9420, e-mail: [email protected]).
Wanna read it in German? Click here.