A failed asylum seeker from Iraq has been accused of killing a 16-year-old girl in Germany by pushing her in front of an oncoming train.
Göttingen public prosecutor’s office said on Friday that it has detained a 31-year-old man from Iraq on suspicion of pushing a 16-year-old girl onto the train tracks and fatally injuring her at the Friedland station on August 11th.
While police had initially suspected the incident to have been an accident, the Iraqi national’s DNA was later found on the deceased girl’s shoulder, German daily Die Welt reports.
Police had interviewed the man shortly after the girl’s tragic death, after which he denied involvement and tested positive for alcohol consumption.
According to prosecutors, the suspect had initially come into contact with police in 2022 when he applied for asylum in Germany.
However, the request was denied in December of that year and a deportation order to Lithuania was issued in March of this year under the Dublin Regulations, which allows for EU nations to send alleged asylum seekers back to the member state where they first entered the bloc.
Yet, in July, the Hanover District Court refused to issue a deportation detention order, allowing him to remain free on the streets of Germany while the removal process continued.
After his arrest, the Iraqi migrant reportedly invoked his right to silence and has since been placed in psychiatric hospital after having allegedly displayed signs of mental illness at the scene of the crime and previously being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
It has yet to be determined whether he will be imprisoned or remanded to a psychiatric hospital should he be convicted of having killed the 16-year-old girl.
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