The German government says a young Iraqi man suspected in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl in western Germany has been arrested in his homeland.

The Interior Ministry said 20-year-old Ali Bashar was arrested by Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq early Friday at the request of German police.

The girl disappeared on May 22 and her body was found Wednesday in Wiesbaden. Authorities then said that Bashar had left with his family abruptly last week, traveling to northern Iraq via Turkey.

Bashar arrived in Germany in 2015, at the height of the influx of refugees and other migrants. He was appealing the rejection of his asylum application, and police said he was suspected in a string of previous offenses in the same area. </s> Iraqi police said on Saturday that a 20-year-old Iraqi man had admitted to the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Germany, Reuters reported. The Jewish teenager from Mainz near Frankfurt was found dead on Wednesday in a wooded area in Wiesbaden, near a refugee center where the alleged attacker had lived, according to German police. An autopsy showed she had been the victim of a sexual and violent attack. There was no evidence her religion had been a factor. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Friday Kurdish security forces had taken the suspect, identified by German authorities as Ali Bashar, into custody on Friday. “The officers were able to identify the location of the accused murderer and arrest him,” local police chief Tariq Ahmed told Rudaw television. German newspaper Wiesbadener Kurier reported that Bashar was expected to be extradited to Germany on Saturday. </s> BERLIN — A rejected Iraqi asylum-seeker accused of murdering and raping a 14-year-old local girl has gone on trial in Germany, in a case that fueled tensions over migration.

The 22-year-old Ali Bashar is accused of assaulting and killing Susanna Feldman in the western city of Wiesbaden in May. Bashar and his family abruptly left a home for asylum applicants in Germany after the killing, and he was later extradited from Iraq.

Bashar’s trial opened at the state court in Wiesbaden on Tuesday and is scheduled to last at least until early May.

He is believed to have arrived in Germany in October 2015, at the height of the migrant influx to the country, and was appealing the rejection of his asylum application at the time of the killing. </s> (Hatha al-Youm | Iraq News )- BERLIN,— The trial of Ali Bashar, accused of raping and killing a teenage girl, has commenced under tight security. The defendant has confessed to the murder but has denied the rape charge.A 22-year-old man confessed to strangling a teenage girl to death at the opening of his murder trial on Tuesday in the western German city of Wiesbaden, but denied that he had raped her beforehand.The defendant, an Iraqi Kurdish asylum seeker identified as Ali Bashar, told the court that he killed the 14-year-old jewish schoolgirl Susanna Maria Feldman in May 2018.“Everything went black and then it happened,” Ali Bashar said through an interpreter. “I don’t know how it could have happened.”Ali Bashar, who fled from Iraqi Kurdistan with his family in 2015, also apologized to the parents of Susanna Maria Feldman, saying he knew that his “apology can’t make anything right again.”Denies rapeIn his confession, Ali Bashar insisted that he and Susanna Maria Feldman had consensual sex before she was killed.Prosecutors allege that the man forced the girl to have sex with him and then killed her after she threatened to go to the police. Afterward, according to prosecutors, he and an unknown accomplice buried her body before he allegedly used her phone to text her mother that she was in Paris.When her remains were found two weeks later, Ali Bashar and his family had left Germany for Iraq. He was then arrested by Kurdish security forces and was taken back to Germany. despite the absence of a formal extradition treaty between Baghdad and Berlin.Heavy securityThe case has ignited the immigration debate in Germany, with the nations far right using Ali Bashar as a symbol of a threat allegedly posed by asylum seekers from the Middle East.Several dozen protesters demonstrated outside the courthouse in Wiesbaden, where the crime took place, displaying a sign reading “No Leniency for Muslims.”A verdict in the trial is not expected until May. Ali Bashar faces life imprisonment if found guilty and could be deported back to Iraq, though he will likely serve half of a prison sentence in Germany. He also faces a separate trial from March 19 where he has been charged with twice raping an 11-year-old girl.Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, dw.com | Ekurd.netComments Comments </s> Image copyright EPA Image caption Ali Bashar covered his face at the start of the trial, showing the name "Ziad" written on his fingers

A failed asylum seeker who was arrested by German police in Iraq has gone on trial accused of the rape and murder of a 14-year-old German girl in Wiesbaden.

Ali Bashar, 22, admitted in court that he had strangled Susanna Feldman, but said he did not know how it happened.

The May 2018 killing prompted outrage in Germany and led Chancellor Angela Merkel to call for faster deportation of failed asylum seekers.

The girl's body was found two weeks after she disappeared.

"Everything went black before my eyes, then it all happened," the defendant told the court through an interpreter. "I don't know how it could have happened."

Ali Bashar is also accused of attacking a man in a park and faces a separate trial next week for allegedly raping a girl aged 11.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Flowers marked the spot where Susanna's body was found last June

Susanna Feldman's mother, Diana, was in court to hear details of her daughter's death and the indictment against Ali Bashar.

Defendant gives evidence

As the trial got under way amid tight security, the defendant gave a statement to the court in which he described how his family had fled Iraq in 2015.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said he had drunk alcohol since the age of 12 but had used drugs for the first time when he came to Germany.

He told the court he had met Susanna through a mutual acquaintance three months before the attack and had spent time with her, listening to music and walking with her, hand in hand. He had not known her age, he said.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The suspect was brought back to Germany in an operation led by the head of German federal police

He denies rape and says they had consensual sex. But prosecutors say Susanna was raped in a forest and then strangled from behind when she threatened to go police.

Her body was found buried beside a railway line after police were given information from a 13-year-old Afghan refugee from Ali Bashar's asylum shelter.

By the time she had been found, Ali Bashar and his family had left Germany for Iraq.

They had travelled to the Kurdish city of Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, where the 22 year old was detained by local forces and returned to Germany.

High-profile case

In a high-profile mission, the head of German federal police, Dieter Romann, travelled to Irbil with anti-terror police to bring him back. Iraq and Germany do not have an extradition treaty.

The case has provoked widespread anger politically. Police were criticised after the teenager's disappearance for failing to carry out a sufficient search.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a TV interview last June that the case showed how important it was for people with no residency status to be put before the courts so that "they can quickly get sent home again".

Far-right politicians from the AfD party have been accused of seizing on the case for political ends. Marches and vigils were held against illegal immigration, three years after a wave of migrants and refugees arrived in Germany.

Several high-profile crimes involving asylum seekers have sparked public anger in Germany. The killing of a 15-year-old German girl in the south-west of Germany by her ex-boyfriend was also seized upon by far-right groups.

There were clashes last August after a man was fatally stabbed in the eastern city of Chemnitz. An Iraqi and a Syrian were arrested at the time. </s> Ali Bashar covers his face as he arrives at a court in Wiesbaden on Tuesday BORIS ROESSLER/AP

A failed Iraqi asylum seeker accused of raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl in Germany has admitted strangling her but said she agreed to have sex.

Ali Bashar, 22, fled to Iraq after killing Susanna Feldmann in a field near her home in Wiesbaden last May, in a murder that was seized upon by the populist critics of Angela Merkel’s migration policies.

Yesterday Mr Bashar, who was extradited to Germany by the Kurdish authorities, appeared for the first day of his trial, watched by Susanna’s mother.

He said he had throttled the teenager after she hurt herself falling over and threatened to tell the police he had injured her. “I held her, my hand around her neck,” he said. “I do not know how it… </s> BAGHDAD/BERLIN - Iraqi police said on Saturday that a 20-year-old Iraqi man had admitted to the rape and murder of 14-year-old Susanna Feldman in Germany, where the case has stoked the immigration debate.



The Jewish teenager from Mainz near Frankfurt was found dead on Wednesday in a wooded area in Wiesbaden, near a refugee center where the alleged attacker had lived, German police said.





An autopsy showed she had been the victim of a sexual and violent attack. Police said there was no evidence her religion had been a factor and the Central Council of Jews in Germany cautioned against attributing any antisemitic motive.German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Friday Kurdish security forces had taken the suspect, identified by German authorities as Ali Bashar, into custody on Friday."I ordered three officers to investigate the case. After seven hours, the officers were able to identify the location of the accused murderer and arrest him," local police chief Tariq Ahmed told Rudaw television.Ahmed said that the suspect had confessed to raping and killing the German teenager during interrogation by Kurdish security authorities. German Bild newspaper reported that Bashar and Feldman argued before he attacked and killed her.German newspaper Wiesbadener Kurier reported that Bashar was expected to be extradited to Germany on Saturday. A spokesman for Germany's federal police declined to comment on the report.Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to take in large numbers of asylum seekers during Europe's 2015 migrant crisis has stirred a political backlash, with many politicians calling for new rules to make it easier to deport immigrants.Bashar had been living in Germany as a refugee since 2015, German media have reported.Police, who set up a special call center for tips from the public and issued releases in Arabic and Turkish, told reporters on Thursday that Bashar had likely fled to Erbil in Iraq. </s> (Hatha al-Youm | Iraq News )- ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A failed Iraqi Kurdish asylum seeker in Germany has confessed to a court that he murdered a German teen, but denied charges that he raped her.“My vision went black and then it happened,” Ali Bashar, 22, told a German court on Tuesday. “I don’t know how it could have happened.”Prosecutors in Germany charged Bashar in January for beating and raping 14-year-old Susanna Feldman on May 23, 2018. His trial began on March 11.Related Article: Iraqi Kurdish man charged for rape, murder of German teen Susanna FeldmanThe Feldman murder, dubbed the “Susanna Case,” sparked controversy across Germany regarding the country’s migrant policy. Millions of immigrants from various countries have come to Germany since a 2015 decision to open the border to refugees fleeing Syria and other nations, and it has become a hot-button issue, further dividing an already partisan and hostile political environment in the country.Following the murder, Bashar fled Germany to the Kurdistan Region before police in the Duhok governorate arrested him after Berlin issued an arrest warrant. He later admitted to Kurdish authorities that he killed Feldman.Duhok city police chief Tariq Ahmed told Kurdistan 24 in June that the suspect had confessed to murdering Feldman following interrogation by Kurdish security authorities.According to Ahmed, Bashar and the German teen were friends who were “on a trip to the woods” where “they consumed a lot of alcohol and drugs” before getting into an argument, during which the girl tried to call the police.Fearing a severe charge if the police showed up since Feldman was under 18, Ahmed said the Bashar “choked her and buried her beneath the dirt.”After his confession, the Iraqi Kurdish man was deported back to Germany and taken to a Frankfurt jail.Although Bashar denies that he raped the 14-year-old, an autopsy of Feldman’s body revealed signs of a violent and sexual attack.The trial is expected to last until May as the 22-year-old is also charged with the rape of an 11-year-old at a refugee home where he lived in Wiesbaden, western Germany.Editing by John J. Catherine </s> The German government said a young Iraqi man suspected in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Jewish schoolgirl in western Germany has been arrested in his homeland.

The Interior Ministry said 20-year-old Ali Bashar was arrested by Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq early Friday at the request of German police.

The body of the girl, named as Susanna Maria Feldman, who had been missing since May 22, was found Wednesday buried on the outskirts of the western German city of Wiesbaden.

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Bashar was a suspect in a string of previous offenses in the area, including a robbery at knifepoint. The dpa news agency reported that the victim knew Bashar’s brother.

He is believed to have arrived in Germany in October 2015, at the height of the migrant influx to Germany, and was appealing the rejection of his asylum application.

Police said a 13-year-old refugee boy went to a police station in Wiesbaden on Sunday and told officers the girl had been raped and killed, and named the Iraqi as a possible perpetrator.

Germany’s Central Council of Jews said Feldman was a member of the Jewish community in Mainz, near Wiesbaden. It called for a thorough investigation and warned in a statement against “premature conclusions.”

The Jewish community of Mainz reacted to the tragedy with shock and grief.

“I am as shocked, sad, and aghast about the violent death of Susanna as one can be,” Rabbi Aharon Ran Vernikovsky, who leads the Mainz Jewish community, told the Juedische Allgemeine weekly, adding that the community would do everything in its power to help and support her family.

The case has preoccupied German media for several days. News of the discovery of Feldman’s body’s near neighboring Wiesbaden made headlines nationwide, though most newspapers did not initially mention the fact that she was Jewish.

On Thursday afternoon, the Central Council of Jews in Germany confirmed that the victim was Jewish and expressed its condolences to her friends and family.

“A young life was ended in a gruesome fashion,” the statement read. “Our deepest sympathies are with family and friends. Susanna was a member of the Jewish Community Mainz.”

Previous killings by asylum-seekers in Germany have fanned tensions over the influx of more than a million migrants in 2015 and 2016, an issue that helped the far-right Alternative for Germany enter the German parliament last year.

The surge of migrants also sparked a rash of attacks on asylum-seekers’ homes, which has since tapered off.

In one case, two men were convicted Thursday in the southwestern city of Landau of setting fire to a home being built for asylum-seekers in the nearby town of Herxheim in 2015. They both received probation.

Raphael Ahren contributed to this report.
Ali Bashar, the main suspect in the murder and rape case of a 14-year-old German-Jewish girl in Wiesbaden, Germany is arrested by Kurdish forces in Northern Iraq.