Syrian refugee persuaded Palestinian to murder German 'Jew'
By Benjamin Weinthal
The Jerusalem Post
June 28, 2019
The Syrian refugee Mohammed Omran Albakr persuaded his Palestinian accomplice Iyad Bayatneh to murder a German millionaire because he allegedly was a Jew.
The dramatic development was reported on Thursday by the local newspaper Schwarzwälder Bote.
The 57-year-old victim Michael Riecher, a real estate investor who was not Jewish, was found strangled in his home in November.
According to the report, the 28-year-old Albakr told a number of acquaintances that he was looking for help to rob Riecher, who reportedly had gold and 250,000 Euro in a safe.
A Lebanese-born Palestinian named Haitham Ahmad provided the eye-popping testimony about Albakr and the 31-year-old Bayatneh. Ahmad, who is a barber, said he recommended Bayatneh as an accomplice to Albakr because Bayatneh has a “strong heart.”
According to Ahmad, who used an alias during his testimony, he said Albakr said to Bayatneh that “the man who will be attacked is a Jew.” Bayatneh responded: “The Jews destroyed my country.” Albakr then said "Riecher has no one. We have the right to take the money away from him," according to Ahmad.
The reporter Jürgen Lück, who broke the story about the role of deadly antisemitism as a motive for the murder of Riecher, wrote that a antisemitism watchdog organization Recherchestelle Antisemitismus contacted him on Thursday.
After reports in the Schwarzwälder Bote and The Jerusalem Post , Germany’s top-selling paper Bild titled its Friday story: “Millionaire murdered because perpetrator considered him Jew?”
The next court session is in early July.
No comments:
Post a Comment