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HSV professional Jatta
Photo: IMAGO/Philipp Szyza
Soccer professional Bakery Jatta from Hamburger SV no longer has to fear a trial for allegedly false identity.
On Friday, the Hamburg Regional Court largely dismissed the complaint by the public prosecutor's office for rejecting criminal proceedings against Jatta.
"There is no sufficient suspicion of identity deception," said Jatta's lawyer Thomas Bliwier on Friday.
It had not been proven that the Gambian obtained a residence permit in Germany under a false name.
"The criminal accusation has been settled," said Bliwier about the investigations, which have been going on for three years.
A procedure at the district court of Hamburg is still opened against Jatta.
In two cases, there were conflicting details about the name of Jatta's mother, the lawyer said and said: "I'm very confident that we'll get an acquittal there too." Jatta had his mother's surname when he arrived in Germany with Jatta specified.
In a follow-up application almost four years later, her name was Daffeh.
According to information from the higher regional court, the district court found that Bakery Jatta and Bakary Daffeh were "very likely" identical.
The knowledge was also gained on the basis of scientific comparative reports.
Both names are given with different dates of birth.
Jatta is 24 years old, Daffeh is said to be two and a half years older.
The regional court agreed with the defense that the then 14-year-old Jatta had pretended to be at least 16 in order to be able to play football in Nigeria and later Senegal according to the local regulations and earn money with it.
As a result, Jatta was actually 17 years old when he arrived in Germany in July 2015.
Thus, he would not have obtained a residence permit as an unaccompanied minor.
dop/dpa