The case of a young migrant who killed his former girlfriend became a centerpiece in a national debate about immigrants, whom right-wingers have linked to violent crime.
A German court convicted a young migrant who is believed to be from Afghanistan of murdering his 15-year-old girlfriend and sentenced him to eight and a half years in prison on Monday, in a case that has stoked national debate and fears over recent immigration into the country, with nationalist groups trying to portray migrants as a threat.
The defendant, identified by the authorities as Abdul D., plunged a kitchen knife with an eight-inch blade into the heart of the victim, Mia V. The attack took place in an aisle of a drugstore in Kandel, the quiet town near the French border where they both lived.
The court handled the case as a juvenile offense, because Abdul said he was also 15 at the time of the killing. That meant the hearing was closed to spectators and the maximum penalty was 10 years in prison.
The authorities have suggested that Abdul may be several years older than he claims. Migrants under the age of 18 are treated as juveniles in Germany, meaning they cannot be deported until they become adults, leading some young men to lie about their age.
There is also some question about his origins. The defendants said he was from Afghanistan, but officials have been not been able to confirm that.
He arrived in Germany in 2016, a year that saw a surge of migration to Europe, primarily from the Middle East and Africa, and he applied for asylum as a refugee. He was denied asylum, but had not yet been deported.
Although violent crime in Germany remains fairly low, anti-immigrant activists and far-right politicians have seized on the murder case and other crimes committed by migrants to argue that they pose a threat to the country’s safety, as well as its national identity.
