Response from Berlin

Three days after the Islamic terrorist attack in Solingen and the pre-trial detention of the 26-year-old alleged perpetrator, new facts about the case are constantly coming to light. This time from a revealing journalistic investigation of the public networks WDR and NDR, which raise reasonable questions about possible failures and omissions of the relevant German authorities.

First, it appears that as early as 2022, when the 26-year-old first arrived in Germany and requested asylum in Bielefeld, the competent authorities allegedly collected contradictory information about his past and his route from Syria to Germany with Bulgaria as the country of first registration . He had falsely stated, according to the investigation, that he had relatives in Germany, but they were never identified. He had also stated that he was afraid to return to Syria lest he be drafted and that he wanted to work to send money to his family in Syria. This information did not convince the authorities either.

At the beginning of 2023, he was notified of the decision to deport him to Bulgaria, the first country to enter the EU based on the “Dublin” rules, but the alleged perpetrator filed a legal appeal against the deportation decision. In fact, the German media say that he knew the German legal system and its capabilities unusually well, in other words he allegedly had targeted information in advance about legal procedures and deadlines in Germany.

Authorities did not search for him when he disappeared

The decision to deport him to Bulgaria was finally finalized in June 2023. But when the competent authorities tried to locate him at the place of residence he had declared, he had disappeared. NDR and WDR also reveal that after this event, there was no search for him, as the German authorities should have done, and as a result the legal deadline for deportation passed.

Thus, after the expiration of the deportation deadline in Bulgaria, only Germany would be responsible for the 26-year-old. So a year ago, in August 2023, he appeared before the German authorities and finally managed to obtain a special protection status. Since then he has been residing in a refugee facility in Solingen.

In the interim, however, from 2022 until yesterday, there was no file in the secret services or the German police with evidence that made the 26-year-old from Syria dangerous for relations with jihadists.

The German networks note, however, that in general the system of deportations to Bulgaria usually does not work. In 2023, of the 8,000 deportations that were supposed to take place in Bulgaria, only 266 were completed.