STUTTGART: An Afghan man with suspected extremist motives went on trial in Germany on Thursday over a knife attack that killed a policeman and wounded five others at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim last year.
The opening of the trial comes at a time of heated debate about migration in Germany ahead of a snap election on February 23 and following a spate of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers.
Even as the proceedings were opening, another Afghan man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of ramming a car into a crowd in Munich, with at least 28 injured.
The defendant in the Mannheim trial, only partially named as Sulaiman A., allegedly used a large hunting knife in a stabbing rampage targeting a rally by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam.
The knifeman initially attacked a speaker and other demonstrators, then stabbed a police officer who rushed in to help, and who died two days later of his wounds.
Sulaiman A. appeared apathetic as the indictment was read out at the higher regional court in Stuttgart.
His defense lawyers Axel Kuester and Mehmet Okur said that during the trial, he would only provide information about himself and not about the charges.
The lawyers declined to comment on whether their client might have a psychiatric disorder, but Kuster said he had learned to speak perfect German and “comes across as extremely pleasant and nice.”
Judge Herbert Anderer said the trial would focus only on whether the suspect was guilty and would avoid getting dragged into wider social or political issues.
“That means we may only briefly touch on some questions and aspects that may be of greater interest to certain people,” he said.
Sulaiman A., who was aged 25 at the time of the May 31 attack, was shot and wounded at the site before he was also arrested.
Many Germans were especially shocked as a video circulating online showed the 29-year-old police officer being repeatedly stabbed in the back of the head.
While the suspect is not being tried on terrorism charges, prosecutors say he sympathized with the Islamic State (IS) group.
According to German media reports, he arrived in Germany in 2013 aged just 14, together with his brother but without their parents.
They were denied asylum but, as unaccompanied minors, granted stays of deportation and permanent residency, and initially placed in care facilities, reports have said.
Several recent attacks have inflamed debate on the influx of several million refugees and migrants to Germany over the past decade.
In August, three people died and five were wounded in a knife rampage claimed by Daesh in the western city of Solingen, in which the Syrian suspect had been slated for deportation but evaded law enforcement.
An attack targeting a group of kindergarten children in the southern city of Aschaffenburg claimed two lives in January, including that of a two-year-old child.
A 28-year-old Afghan man, whom officials describe as having a history of mental health issues, was arrested close to the scene.
The attacks have driven rising support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is polling at around 20 percent ahead of the election.
In the wake of the Aschaffenburg attack, the center-right CDU, currently leading in polls on around 30 percent, demanded a crackdown against irregular migration.
But CDU leader Friedrich Merz sparked outrage by bringing a resolution on the issue to parliament which passed with AfD votes, breaching a long-standing taboo against cooperating with the far right.
Afghan goes on trial over deadly knife attack on German policeman
https://arab.news/btjhw
Afghan goes on trial over deadly knife attack on German policeman

- Even as the proceedings were opening, another Afghan man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of ramming a car into a crowd in Munich, with at least 28 injured
- Knifeman initially attacked a speaker and other demonstrators, then stabbed a police officer
Incoming German interior minister skeptical about ban on far-right AfD

- German lawmakers have been discussing measures to dismiss civil servants who are members of the AfD and limit or halt public funding
BERLIN: Incoming German interior minister Alexander Dobrindt suggested on Sunday it was unlikely the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party would be banned after the spy agency classified it as “extremist” last week.
German lawmakers have been discussing outlawing the party and taking other measures including dismissing civil servants who are members of the AfD and limiting or halting public funding.
But Dobrindt told broadcaster ARD he was doubtful whether the AfD activities identified in the spy agency’s report met the requirements set out for an outright ban.
Guidelines set by the constitutional court say a party must be shown to be working “combatively and aggressively” to implement its goals to be banned.
“I’m skeptical, because the aggressive, combative nature of the party against our democracy must be a defining characteristic. The Constitutional Court was right to set high hurdles for banning a party,” Dobrindt said.
He added that he was “convinced that the AfD does not need to be banned, it needs to be governed away, and we need to talk about the issues that have made the AfD so big.”
Dobrindt, a high-profile member of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU, said his ministry would examine the designation in depth and he would discuss its findings with the spy agency’s top brass in person.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the future government would work to shrink the AfD.
“What I don’t believe is that a potential ban procedure, which could take years, is the sole instrument to bring the AfD down,” Klingbeil, Germany’s next vice chancellor, said.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel accused outgoing Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of using the spy agency as a “secret justice system” to discriminate against the party.
“We are a future governing party; even the machinations of the secret justice system will not be able to prevent that in the long run,” Weidel told the Welt newspaper on Sunday.
South Africa exit from DRC to be completed this month

- The soldiers are part of a regional Southern African Development Community force that deployed to the eastern DRC in December 2023 during a resurgence of the M23 armed movement
JOHANNESBURG: South African troops withdrawing from the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have begun assembling in Tanzania and most should return home this month, the defense chief said on Sunday.
Under the phased withdrawal that started on April 29, the troops are to exit the DRC via Rwanda by road before entering Tanzania, Gen. Rudzani Maphwanya said.
From there they will return to South Africa by sea and air by the end of May, he said.
The soldiers are part of a regional Southern African Development Community force that deployed to the eastern DRC in December 2023 during a resurgence of the M23 armed movement.
The M23 now controls swaths of territory in the mineral-rich region.
Thirteen trucks with 57 members of the SADC peacekeeping force had already gathered at an assembly point in Tanzania, Maphwanya told reporters.
The next group was scheduled for withdrawal next week, he said.
“The movement from Tanzania to (South Africa) will be by air for personnel and by sea for cargo,” he said.
SADC decided to end its SAMIDRC mission in mid-March after 17 of its soldiers — most of them South Africans — were killed in M23 offensives in January. They have been stranded there since.
The grouping confirmed last week the start of the withdrawal but gave no details.
On April 30, a separate evacuation began of hundreds of DRC soldiers and police trapped for months in United Nations bases in Goma after the eastern DRC city was taken by M23 rebels, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
SADC defense chiefs had informed the M23 they would “withdraw ... personnel and equipment unconditionally,” Maphwanya said.
No SADC equipment would remain. “SADC is not leaving even a pin in eastern DRC,” he added.
Officials do not comment on the size of the SAMIDRC deployment but the bulk of the troops come from South Africa, which is estimated to have sent at least 1,300 soldiers.
There are also South Africans in the DRC under a separate UN peacekeeping mission.
Calls for evacuation began mounting in South Africa after 14 of the country’s soldiers were killed in the region in January.
Three Malawian troops in the SADC deployment were also killed, while Tanzania said two of its soldiers died in clashes.
The evacuation from the DRC was not a sign of weakness or the abandonment of people caught up in the fighting, Maphwanya said.
“Our withdrawal is a technical move that allows peace and mediation to continue.”
Visa crackdown leads international students in the US to reconsider summer travel

- International students weighing travel to see family, take a vacation or conduct research are thinking twice because of the Trump administration’s crackdown, which has added to a sense of vulnerability
CALIFORNIA: On summer break from a PhD program, an international student at University of California, San Diego, was planning a trip with a few friends to Hawaii. But after seeing international students across the United States stripped of their legal status, the student decided against it.
Any travel, even inside the US, just didn’t seem worth the risk.
“I probably am going to skip that to ... have as few interactions with governments as possible,” said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of being targeted.
International students weighing travel to see family, take a vacation or conduct research are thinking twice because of the Trump administration’s crackdown, which has added to a sense of vulnerability.
Even before students suddenly began losing permission to study in the US, some colleges were encouraging international students and faculty to postpone travel, citing government efforts to deport students involved in pro-Palestinian activism. As the scale of the status terminations emerged in recent weeks, more schools have cautioned against non-essential travel abroad for international students.
University of California, Berkeley, for one, issued an advisory last week saying upcoming international travel was risky due to “strict vetting and enforcement.”
At least 1,220 students at 187 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked or legal status terminated since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records.
Malta offers to repair Gaza aid ship in drone strike row

- Pro-Palestinian activists had pointed the finger at Israel for the attack
- If the ship can be fixed at sea, it will be, but otherwise it will be towed under Maltese control to the Mediterranean island for repairs, paid for by Malta
VALLETTA: Malta offered on Sunday to repair an aid ship and send it on its way to Gaza after pro-Palestinian activists said the vessel had been hit by a drone strike.
But Prime Minister Robert Abela said the Freedom Flotilla Coalition must first allow a maritime surveyor on board to inspect the “Conscience” and determine what repairs are needed.
The pro-Palestinian activists had pointed the finger at Israel, which has blockaded the Gaza Strip throughout its military campaign against Hamas, for the attack.
If the ship can be fixed at sea, it will be, but otherwise it will be towed under Maltese control to the Mediterranean island for repairs, paid for by Malta.
“In the last few hours there was insistence that first the boat comes into Maltese waters and then the surveyor is allowed onboard,” Abela said.
“Before a vessel — any vessel — is allowed to enter Maltese waters then control must be in the hands of Maltese authorities, especially when we are talking about a vessel with no flag, no insurance.”
In an online press conference, members of the coalition who had been due to board the Conscience in Malta — including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg — said they had agreed to allow the inspection.
“When we received this offer from the Maltese government, we consulted with all of our Flotilla Coalition committee members who are on board,” said Brazilian FFC volunteer Thiago Avila.
“And their decision is that this is a good proposition from the Maltese government,” he said.
“As long as they can guarantee ... Conscience will not be stopped when it wants to leave on the humanitarian mission to take aid to Gaza.”
The activists explained the Conscience has no flag because the government of the Pacific nation of Palau had announced that they were withdrawing their registration on Friday, the day of the alleged strike.
Otherwise, they insisted they had made every effort to comply with international maritime law when embarking on the mission to take aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
According to the Flotilla Coalition, the Conscience was attacked in international waters as it headed for Malta on Friday, causing a fire that disabled the vessel and minor injuries to crew members.
Maltese and Cypriot rescuers responded. No government has confirmed the Conscience was the victim of drones, but Cyprus’s rescue agency said it had been informed by the island’s foreign ministry of an Israeli strike.
The Israeli military did not provide an immediate response when contacted by AFP.
First reported by CNN, a flight tracking service showed that an Israeli C-130 military cargo plane had been in the area immediately before the incident and had made several low altitude sweeps over the area.
Israel is known for conducting covert operations beyond its borders, including several during the Gaza war that it only acknowledged later.
The activists said the strike appeared to target the boat’s generator.
Thunberg told reporters that the incident should not distract from the focus of the boat’s mission to Gaza.
“What we are doing here is to try our very best to use all the means that we have to do our part, to keep trying to break the inhumane and illegal siege on Gaza and to open up humanitarian corridors,” she said.
Ukraine’s Zelensky: Ceasefire with Russia possible at any moment

PRAGUE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that a ceasefire with Russia in its more than three-year-old war is possible at any moment.
Zelensky, speaking at a joint news conference in Prague alongside Czech President Petr Pavel, also said that Ukraine hopes to receive 1.8 million shells in 2025 under a Czech initiative to provide military assistance.