Pigs’ Heads at a Mosque in Neukölln

The following article, which was published in Die Welt almost a month ago, was part of the “Brussels backlog”, and is just now seeing the light of day in my to-do pile.

Many thanks to Hermes for the translation:

Pigs’ heads in front of a mosque: Police tracking down the suspect

The 25-year-old is said to belong to the extreme right — no confession made.

Berlin — Police from Berlin have questioned a suspect in connection with the attack perpetrated with two severed pigs’ heads against a mosque in Neukölln. On Thursday at around 6 pm the detectives allegedly searched the apartment and the car belonging to a 25-year-old in the district of Lichtenrade, the spokesperson for the Department of Public Prosecution said, in this way confirming a report from the newspaper Bild. The man, however, said nothing when confronted with the accusations.

The man is accused of leaving two severed pigs’ heads in front of the Sehitlik Mosque in April. This is a strong insult to Muslims, because pigs are considered by Islam to be dirty animals. Before this incident, paint bombs had been thrown at the building, and representatives of the mosque were blackmailed. In this letters, foreigners were told under threats of aggression to leave [the country].

According to some reports, the suspect detained on Thursday had been investigated in the past for alleged resistance to authority, bodily injury and xenophobic insults. As the newspaper Bild writes, the man is said to belong to the extreme right group “Autonomous Nationalists”. According to police reports, extreme right pamphlets were found during the search of his apartment.

Evidence found at the scene of the events put the investigators on the track to incriminate the 25-year-old. The evidence obtained led to the conclusion that the suspect could have bought the pigs’ heads in a supermarket

After being interrogated, the suspect was set free again. There was not enough required evidence to fulfill the parameters of the charge, so there has been no arrest warrant, the spokesperson for the Department of Public Prosecution said. But the investigation of the 25-year-old is not closed. A complaint filed [against him] for insulting religious beliefs is still not out of question.