An Afghan migrant has been arrested in Germany for allegedly slitting the throat of an elderly man whose home he worked in. The man’s daughter, a charity worker, had suggested he hire the asylum seeker.
Arriving in Germany with no job, the 20-year-old Afghan was given a helping hand by the victims’ daughter, a refugee aid worker. Last August he was hired to work as the 85-year-old man’s carer, and he was hired again over the weekend to carry out some gardening and cleaning work around the house.
The asylum seeker repaid his hosts’ kindness in blood. In the early hours of Saturday morning, the Afghan allegedly took a knife to the victim’s throat, killing him as he slept, before stealing the man’s car and fleeing the scene, public prosecutors announced on Sunday.
The victim was identified as Dietrich P., while the suspect’s name is being withheld, as is standard practice in Germany. Dietrich P. lived in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where German tabloid Bild reports he had been active in the agricultural wing of the socialist GDR party that ruled East Germany during the Cold War.
“Everyone here knew Dietrich,” a neighbor told Bild. “He was always friendly and helpful. It's unbelievable that this could happen to us.”
Dietrich’s daughter met the young man at a refugee center in Zwickau district in the state of Saxony, where she was volunteering and where the Afghan was living at the time.
According to the prosecutors, the murder was witnessed by a Bosnian man, who was working as a live-in carer to the aging Dietrich. The Bosnian carer saw the murder on a baby monitor he had installed to check on Dietrich, and at first thought that the Afghan was leaning over Dietrich to straighten his blankets.
Only later did he realize the grizzly reality, and called the police.
The suspect apparently stole a car and tried to flee, but crashed the vehicle and continued on foot. He was intercepted by a police patrol and taken to hospital, but was soon identified as a wanted person and detained. A judge ordered him to be placed into pre-trial custody.
The state police said the suspect has no criminal record in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and that they were checking with law enforcement in other parts of Germany for more information about him. It is known that the man’s claim for asylum was rejected and that his permission to stay is to expire at the end of January 2019.
The police said the Afghan man had not stolen anything from Dietrich’s house and that he has not spoken about the murder.
Interior Minister for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Lorenz Caffier warned against using the crime for political speculation. After a spate of Afghan crimes in Germany, Caffier’s call echoes that of UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in September.
Sending Afghans home, Grandi said, is a “complex issue,” despite a series of much-publicized attacks by Afghan nationals, like a stabbing in Chemnitz, a rape in a Berlin elementary school this September, and the rape and drowning of a teenage girl in Freiburg in 2016.
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