Police arrest two Afghans suspected of murdering a German man

The interior minister of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt has appealed for “calm” after German police arrested two Afghan nationals in the town of Koethen, who are suspected of murdering a young German man.

In an interview with German DPA news agency, interior minister Holger Stahlknecht said that he deeply regretted “the tragic death” and understood the concerns of citizens, but wanted residents to “keep a cool head” to prevent the kind of unrest seen previously in the city of Chemnitz.

Two weeks earlier, residents of Chemnitz held anti-foreigner protests after two asylum seekers fatally stabbed a German man. German chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the Chemnitz protest saying there is no place for “hate in the streets”.

Local police and prosecutors said in a statement that the young man from Koethen had died and that “two Afghans were provisionally detained on suspicion of homicide,” AFP reported. According to the statement, the inquiry is ongoing and the concrete circumstances of the event are not yet known.

Susi Moebbeck, the state’s integration officer, wrote on her Twitter account: “Violence should be condemned anywhere, any place. Time for mourning. Time for prudence. Look after each other.”

Following the announcement of the young man’s death, around 2,500 demonstrators, some of them thought to be far-right protestors, held a “memorial march” in Kothen. Police said the demonstrators carried German flags and chanted nationalistic slogans.

The mayor of Kothen, Bernd Hauschild, called on local citizens to condemn the demonstration.

TMP – 04/10/2018

Caption: Police in the German town of Koethen are holding two Afghan nationals suspected of killing a young German man.