Kothen joins Chemnitz: Protests after 2 Afghans arrested over man’s death in east German city
Hundreds have taken to the streets of the eastern German city of Kothen, after a 22-year-old man died following a brawl with two Afghan nationals, who were then arrested. Medics say the man suffered a heart failure.
The victim apparently intervened in a dispute over a German woman, which, according to witness reports, involved the two suspects and a third Afghan man. The German tabloid Bild reported that the argument was about who got the woman pregnant.
While first accounts said the man was beaten to death after he stepped into the row with another German, it emerged later that he died of a heart failure. The autopsy found the death to be “not in direct relationship” with the injuries suffered and that the man had a pre-existing heart disease, according to the prosecutor’s office.
This did not stop hundreds of protesters from taking to the streets of Kothen, hours after anti-migrant activists in Chemnitz launched a separate call for protests in their city, also in eastern Germany.
In response to the death, hundreds of police were deployed to Kothen in anticipation of right-wing anti-immigration protests and potential riots by far-right groups. Two water cannon have also been pulled in.
The death comes shortly after the killing in late August of another German man in the city of Chemnitz. He was stabbed and killed by a group of asylum seekers, believed to be from Iraq and Syria, in a murder which has galvanized the right-wing in Germany.
Pro Chemnitz, a group which has organized protests against Germany’s immigration policy in the Chemnitz since the August killing, said that last night’s death was evidence that “Germans are slaughtered everywhere,” asserting that “we must not let this happen again.”
Those opposing Angela Merkel’s open-borders policy have been using the murders as further evidence that crime and insecurity have soared since the chancellor let in millions of asylum seekers three years ago.
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