Two men accused of attempted murder after a brutal racist attack on a German citizen told federal investigators on Friday that they had nothing to do with the assault.
”Both of the accused denied having anything to do with the crime and presented an alibi,” federal prosecutor Kay Nehm told reporters in the south-western city of Karlsruhe.
Their statements marked a setback in a case that has sparked outrage nationwide.
The two Germans, aged 29 and 30, were arrested late on Thursday and flown to Karlsruhe for questioning over the attack in the eastern city of Potsdam on Sunday which left a German citizen of Ethiopian origin fighting for his life.
The case has been handed to the federal prosecutor’s office because of its severe violence and possible ”political” backdrop. The two suspects are reportedly members of the far-right scene.
The 37-year-old engineer was taunted with racist slurs by two people at a tram stop before being hit with a bottle, thrown to the ground and beaten. He suffered serious brain and skull damage and has been put in an artificial coma.
The victim, identified as Ermyas M, has lived in Germany since the mid-1980s, has a German passport, is married to a German woman, has two children and is a trained engineer who was working on his doctorate.
Nehm said a recording made when the victim tried to call his wife with his cell phone just before the assault had helped track down the suspects. But he said he would hold off issuing an arrest warrant.
The recording, on which racist slurs can be heard, was recovered from the mailbox of his wife’s mobile phone.
”There are significant clues indicating that the aggressors were motivated by xenophobia and right-wing extremism,” Nehm said.
Conservative Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble sparked outrage on Thursday when he noted that the racist motive had not been confirmed, and that ”blond, blue-eyed” people also get attacked, sometimes by foreigners.
He was accused by the Social Democrats, members of the ruling coalition, of playing down the seriousness of racist violence, which is particularly prevalent in the former communist east of the country.
Hundreds of residents of Potsdam, a tourist magnet just outside Berlin, held a rally against racism Friday. — AFP
