Iraqi asylum-seeker, 21, is charged with multiple child rapes and murdering a 14-year-old girl in Germany
- Rejected Iraqi asylum-seeker charged with rape and murder of 14-year-old girl
- Ali Bashar fled back to northern Iraq after the death of Susanna Maria Feldman
- Bashar is also suspected of raping an 11-year-old schoolgirl in a refugee home
- Another Afghan boy, Mansoor Q, also charged with with rape of the 11-year-old
A rejected Iraqi asylum-seeker has today been charged with child rape and murder over attacks on two schoolgirls aged 11 and 14 in western Germany.
Ali Bashar fled Germany after beating, raping and and strangling Susanna Maria Feldman, 14, in a wooded area near his refugee shelter in the city of Wiesbaden last May, prosecutors say.
The 21-year-old had also allegedly twice raped an 11-year-old girl – once in April 2018 after locking her in his room, and again near a supermarket car park the following month.
Bashar went back to northern Iraq but following a public outcry, German federal police hauled him back from Arbil, where he had been arrested by local Kurdish security forces.
Ali Bashar is accused of beating, raping and then strangling to death Susanna Maria Feldman, 14, in a wooded area near his refugee shelter in the city of Wiesbaden
Police officers of a special unit escorting Iraqi asylum seeker Ali Bashar in June last year, who is suspected of having killed a German teenage girl
Despite the absence of a formal extradition treaty between Iraq and Germany, Bashar was put on a flight to Germany, with pictures of him disembarking under heavy police guard making front pages.
Prosecutors today also laid charges against an Afghan youth who was living in the same refugee shelter, Mansoor Q, who was believed to be aged at least 14 at the time, for also raping the same 11-year-old girl.
Bashar’s younger brother – who is believed to be in Iraq, according to media reports – had also taken part in a violent sexual assault against the younger girl, prosecutors say.
Bashar had first arrived in Germany in 2015 along with his parents and five siblings.
He faced deportation after his request for asylum was rejected in December 2016, but he obtained a temporary residence permit pending his appeal.
Susanna Maria Feldman, 14, from Mainz was missing for over 10 days sparking a widespread search operation
Police at the scene of where Susanna Feldman’s body was discovered on the outskirts of Wiesbaden
During this time, he got into trouble with police on several occasions, including for fights, alleged robbery and possession of an illegal switchblade.
In his upcoming trial he also faces charges for a park robbery in which he beat, strangled and threatened with a knife a man to steal his watch, bag, phone and bank card.
The ‘Susanna case’ as it became known in Germany prompted politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, to urge the speeding up of deportations of asylum-seekers who have broken the law in Germany.