Hesse has deported a Tunisian man who harbored anti-queer sentiments and sympathized with terrorist organizations, along with two Afghan nationals convicted of crimes, back to their home countries. Interior Minister Roman Poseck (CDU) announced: “Anyone who threatens our society with violence and terror has no right to stay here. Hessen deports such people with the utmost firmness and determination.”
The 20-year-old Tunisian who sided with the terrorist organizations “Islamic State” and Al-Qaeda had posed with a machine gun on social media and had celebrated the attack on Berlin’s Christopher Street Day (CSD). During a raid of his residence, Islamist propaganda material was seized.
On July 25, during the attack in Berlin, a 21-year-old Islamist used a car and a machete in the Tiergarten, killing one woman and injuring 31 others (see TheColu.mn Liveblog). The suspect was shot dead by police the following day.
IS sympathizer jailed during the Fulda CSD
Moreover, the police had quickly recognized the threat posed by the 20-year-old: “The person received, among other measures, reporting obligations, electronic monitoring of his residence, a threat-assessment interview, and bans from upcoming CSD events. The options for preventive detention under Hessian police law were also applied during the Fulda CSD,” Poseck said. The CSD took place on August 29 and, according to police, proceeded largely peacefully.
According to Poseck, the Tunisian was “a danger to public safety.” Since September 3 he had been subject to deportation obligations. “Yesterday he was successfully deported, not even 14 days after the departure obligation took effect,” the minister stated. “The rule of law has thus acted consistently. This measure also demonstrates that those who attack our diversity and our freedom will not prevail.”
The two Afghan nationals who were also deported had, according to Poseck, been convicted of multiple offenses, including fraud, assault on law enforcement officers, and property damage, and had been imprisoned.
In Hesse, the interior minister said, there are currently around 20 people classified as Islamist threat suspects. About half of them are either behind bars or abroad. Most of them hold German citizenship.
“Signal to the World”
The measures now taken are “also a signal to the world that Germany’s willingness to take in refugees has clear boundaries.” The federal Republic has, in his view, already lost its “magnetic appeal” to refugees from around the world.
The federal government is currently weighing a ten-point plan in response to the CSD attack to better protect Germany against Islamist terror (TheColu.mn reported). When it comes to supporting queer people beyond refugee-related policy, the governing coalition continues to face difficulties: there has been no response yet to the proposal for a Chancellor’s summit to better protect queer people.
