WEB DESK
A court in the German city of Landau today sentenced a refugee / asylum-seeker Abdul D. to eight years and six months in jail for the murder of a teenage girl in the town of Kandel in December last year, reports DW.
The murder had been seized upon by many opponents of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy to support their anti-immigration stance. The case has received great media attention in Germany, and many reporters were present outside the court as the verdict was announced.
Abdul D.’s lawyer, Maximilian Ender, told reporters that he thought the court’s decision was correct and that his client had “accepted” the sentence.
After following the course of events surrounding the murder, Martin Müller, a 53-year-old from Offenbach, showed up outside of the court to protest the verdict.
He told DW that he “spontaneously” decided to come to the courthouse after hearing about the verdict on the radio.
“As a concerned citizen, you thought about what would be an appropriate sentence for this crime and these 8.5 years are clearly not enough,” he said.
Another passer-by, Christoph Hückstädt, 23, also told DW that he was disappointed with the sentence.
“I don’t think it’s right,” Hückstädt said. “He should have gotten 10 years. It was murder.”
Fifteen-year-old Mia V. was stabbed to death in a drugstore by her ex-boyfriend Abdul D., believed to be from Afghanistan. The teen was stabbed seven times with a kitchen knife that had a 20-centimeter (7.9-inch) blade.
According to prosecutors, the two dated for several months until Mia V. ended the relationship in early December. After the breakup, both she and her parents went to the police about Abdul D.’s harassing and threatening behavior. Prosecutors believe he acted out of jealousy and was seeking revenge for the breakup.
Accordig to DW, Abdul D. entered Germany in the spring of 2016 and was registered as an unaccompanied minor. He first lived in a juvenile care institution in the Germersheim district in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. He was later transferred to a supervised living group in the town of Neustadt and attended school in Kandel, where he met Mia V.