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| Europe | |
| Halle synagogue shooter brought to federal court, faces murder charges | |
| 2019-10-11 | |
The suspect in an attack on a German synagogue was brought before a judge at the Federal Supreme Court in the city of Karlsruhe on Thursday, ahead of expected murder charges against him. Suspect Stephan Balliet was seen being taken from a helicopter to a vehicle under heavy guard on Thursday afternoon. He had a bandage on his neck, apparently covering a gunshot wound after he was shot by police during his arrest, and appeared to be restrained at the waist and feet. The alleged shooter faces two counts of murder and nine counts of attempted murder for what prosecutors have described as a far-right "terror attack." A judge placed him under arrest in pre-trial custody. "What we experienced yesterday was terror," said Peter Frank, the chief federal prosecutor. "The suspect, Stephan B., aimed to carry out a massacre in the synagogue in Halle." The assailant on Wednesday tried but failed to force his way into the synagogue on Yom Kippur as around 80 people were inside. He then shot and killed a woman in the street outside and a man at a nearby kebab shop. A German security official said the suspect was caught about 90 minutes after his assault started as he abandoned a stolen taxi following an accident involving a truck. Holger Stahlknecht, the interior minister of Saxony-Anhalt state, said the suspect managed to drive out of Halle after killing two people and following an exchange of shots with police that left him with a neck wound. He abandoned his car in a small nearby town, where he shot and maimed two other people. He continued southward in a stolen taxi, and was arrested as he left that vehicle following the accident. Police also seized a webcam in the car that he had used to film his attack. Stahlknecht said the suspect wasn’t on authorities’ radar before Wednesday. He said police arrived at the synagogue seven minutes after they were alerted to the shooting, but acknowledged that in such a situation "seven minutes feel like seven weeks." Frank said that the suspect had around four kilograms (nearly nine pounds) of explosives in his car. He said his weapons were "apparently homemade" and the explosives in the car were built into "numerous devices." Frank said Sherlocks "face a lot of questions," among them how the suspect became radicalized, how he acquired weapons and explosives or obtained materials to build them, and whether anyone else encouraged him or knew about his plan. The suspect, who livestreamed the attack on a popular gaming site while ranting in English about Jews and posted a "manifesto" online before embarking on it, "wanted to create a worldwide effect" and encourage others to imitate him, the prosecutor added. Investigators have yet to determine how the suspect was radicalized, how he decided to carry out the attack, how he got hold of the material to build weapons and explosives, whether he had supporters or whether anyone else encouraged him or knew about his plan, he said. Prosecutors will have to sift through his communications and his activities on the darknet, a part of the internet hidden from public view. Officials didn’t give details of the victims, who were killed outside the synagogue and in a nearby kebab shop. Synagogues are often protected by police in Germany and have been for many years amid concerns over far-right and Islamic extremism. There has been rising concern lately about both anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism in the country. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency says the number of anti-Semitic acts of violence rose to 48 last year from 21 the previous year. It also said the number of far-right Death Eaters rose by 100 to 24,100 people last year, with more than half of them considered potentially violent. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #6 Yes. Amen. |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-10-11 15:26 |
| #5 Dron, for us Christians, the answer is holy conduct and godliness: 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! (2 Peter 3:11-12) |
| Posted by: Tom 2019-10-11 14:42 |
| #4 Well, I hope there are. And the Lord be with 'em. When I was small, my mammy used to send a cheque every few months to a Rabbi Salomon. She used to tell me they'll do something spectacular. Then again, Gawd used to tell me He'd do something spectacular... sorty sorry It's just one o' those days for me .gif) |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-10-11 06:11 |
| #3 ^That would be telling, Dron66046. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-10-11 05:59 |
| #2 I ask only for my personal illumination. Are there really ... Zionists ? Not the sweet old, Temple Mount fuddy duddies and their video blogs. Actual conniving, murdering, plotters trying to bring about the razing of the 'abomination that maketh desolate' and trying to set up a stronger, unified Israeli state, without arabs or legalistic westerners mucking about. One nation. We've seen the Javotinsky brand of military centrism which diluted into liberal ideologies and then the Likud. Then there are the several crazies like me in christianity with our own maniacal eschatological vision for Israel. I think we can safely assume that sensible nation states realize the value of powerless arabs and a stronger Israel, or the symbolic worth of islamist indigent masses barely surviving beside a flourishing non-islamic ally. But are there actually people investing and plotting to bring that about ? I don't need info, just a yes or no shall suffice. Well are there ? |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-10-11 05:31 |
| #1 First time in how long a non Islamic terror attack? My guess, we are going to hear about it endlessly. And all the anti-immigration people in Europe will be compared to Stephan Balliet. Except by neo-Nazis (who are, actually, allied to Muzzies - birds of the feather) who will point out that he didn't actually kill any Jews. And therefore, this must be a Zionist plot. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-10-11 01:47 |