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The man (inset), who
was shot dead in front of a police station, is searched by an
anti-explosive robot Photo: AFP
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Fresh
pressure on Merkel as it emerges Paris attacker lived in German
refugee centre
Revelation
raises futher questions about country's liberal stance on migrants
By AFP3:00PM GMT 10
Jan 2016
Angela Merkel’s
“open door migrant policy” is under further pressure after it
emerged a suspected terrorist who attacked a Paris police station
last week had lived in an asylum-seeker shelter in Germany.
The man had stayed
in refugee accommodation in Recklinghausen in the west of the
country, and had reportedly painted a symbol associated with the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) on a wall in shelter.
He was able to then
travel to France undetected, where he tried to storm a police station
in northern Paris, brandishing a meat cleaver and wearing a fake
suicide vest, before being shot dead.
Right-wing
demonstrators arrive in the square outside the main station in
Cologne, Germany
Right-wing
demonstrators arrive in the square outside the main station in
Cologne, Germany Photo: Roland Weihrauch/EPA
The assault took
place exactly one year since the start of a series of jihadist
attacks in France beginning with the killing of 12 people at the
Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine on January 7 last year.
The German link to
the attacker in France risks fanning fears that would-be terrorists
have been slipping into Germany amid a record refugee influx.
German investigators
assisting the probe into the Paris police station attack raided the
refugee shelter after it emerged that the man had been carrying a
mobile phone with a German SIM card when he was shot dead.
French investigators
have said the man’s identity is still being established, as it was
revealed that the suspect may have used several different aliases
while in Europe.
According to French
media, his fingerprints match those of a homeless man convicted of
theft in 2013 in the south of France, who gave his name as Sallah Ali
and said he was Moroccan.
However, people
presenting themselves as his relatives have come forward and have
identified the man as a Tunisian called Tarek Belgacem. They denied
that he was involved in terrorism.
The French
authorities have not confirmed any name but the interior minister,
Bernard Cazeneuve, said he was “undoubtedly” Tunisian.
The man had painted
an Isil symbol on a wall in the refugee shelter in September,
according to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. It is not yet known
when authorities became aware of the painting.
The news magazine
Spiegel Online reported meanwhile that the man, understood as having
been registered as an asylum seeker, had already been classed by
German police as a possible suspect after he posed at the refugee
centre with an Isil flag, but he disappeared in December.
The man had given
different nationalities at each registration, once saying he was
Syrian, another time saying he was Moroccan, and on yet another
occasion, Georgian.
The link to a
refugee shelter in Germany, and the apparent ease with which the man
was able to register with the authorities, risks further inflaming a
debate over the 1.1 million asylum-seekers that the country took in
last year.
Tensions were
already running high in Germany after a spate of sexual assaults and
thefts during New Year's Eve celebrations in Cologne, with police
saying suspects of the crime spree were mostly asylum seekers and
migrants.
Police said Sunday
the number of cases filed over violence during the festivities in
Cologne had reached 516, including 40 percent relating to sexual
assault.
Heiko Maas,
Germany’s justice minister, said on Sunday that he suspected that
the attacks in Cologne that have left the country reeling were not
the result of an opportunistic mob mentality but a planned attack.
"No one can
tell me that it wasn't coordinated and prepared," he told
newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "My suspicion is that this specific
date was picked, and a certain number of people expected. This would
again add another dimension [to the crimes]."
26-year-old student
Antonia Rabente a Cologne resident who spoke about the attacks
26-year-old student
Antonia Rabente a Cologne resident who spoke about the attacks
Photo: AP
Police have detained
for questioning a 22-year-old Tunisian, was registered at a refugee
centre in a neighboring state, while two Moroccans aged 18 and 23,
were apparently in the country illegally, according to their lawer.
"Our clients
are modern nomads," Ingo Lindemann said. "They're not war
refugees but more like grown street children who move with the flow
of refugees across Europe."
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