Enlarge image
Candles and flowers at Brokstedt station (photo from February 5): Two people were killed in the attack
Photo: Marcus Brandt / dpa
In the case of the suspected knife attacker von Brokstedt, another mistake by the authorities has become known: several participants in a non-public meeting of the Interior Committee of the Bundestag unanimously reported that the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Mahmut Özdemir (SPD), had said in the file that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) to Ibrahim A., an identity card from Syria was wrongly received from another person.
Therefore, the BAMF has meanwhile assumed that the man is a stateless Palestinian from Syria.
Released from custody shortly before the crime
A BAMF department head had previously explained to the interior committee of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament that Ibrahim A. himself had said after entering the country in 2014 that he came from the Gaza Strip and was stateless.
He is said to have stabbed other passengers with a knife on a regional train from Kiel to Hamburg on January 25.
Two young people died and five others were injured, some seriously.
Almost a week earlier, the 33-year-old had been released from custody in Hamburg.
On Wednesday, the BAMF said on request: "A Syrian ID card was initially incorrectly assigned to the procedure, but was then assigned to the correct person again." protection status must be granted.
However, the committee also discussed the fact that, when the decision on protection for Ibrahim A. was made, the BAMF was not aware that the applicant had already come into conflict with the law in North Rhine-Westphalia, where he initially lived.
Deportations to Palestinian territories very difficult
The authorities in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein blame each other for dealing with the alleged perpetrator.
Among other things, the question is why the BAMF's procedure for withdrawing the so-called subsidiary protection status for the Palestinians was not completed.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, returns to the Palestinian territories are possible in principle, but very difficult.
Hamburg's State Councilor for Justice Holger Schatz has now defended himself against criticism of the communication of the authorities in the Hanseatic city.
In the past year, there have been “ten reports by Hamburg contacting the authorities in Schleswig-Holstein,” he said in the interior and legal committee of the state parliament in Kiel.
At the latest since the beginning of March, the immigration office in Kiel and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) have had all the essential information about the detention of the 33-year-old.
According to Schatz, the corresponding messages from the Hamburg authorities have remained unanswered several times.
It was not until March 9th that there were emails from Kiel about the case, which were answered, including to the BAMF.
"The BAMF had been aware of Ibrahim A.'s new crimes since March 9." The Hamburg judiciary had invited the Ministry of Justice to talks about how communication between the authorities in the north could be improved.
Authorities saw no terrorist background
A department head of the BAMF who was connected via video said that a Hamburg report from March 1st was by no means sent to his authority.
The city of Kiel copied the BAMF in this matter when it asked about Hamburg on March 9th.
In addition, Schatz announced that the authorities in Hamburg had seen no signs of a terrorist background during Bei A.'s detention, despite a comparison with the assassin Anis Amri.
There was no evidence other than the statement.
The 33-year-old Ibrahim A. had no contacts in Islamist circles, had neither a Koran nor a prayer rug in the cell.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) had proposed to the federal states on Monday that in future the law enforcement authorities would inform the immigration authorities "immediately if the person concerned is being detained and where he was detained, and if the person concerned is being released from custody and what the release address was given «.
In the current case, however, that would not have solved the problems, said domestic politician Clara Bünger (left).
The problem here is not the legal situation, but "authority failure".
bbr/dpa