“What is behind the bloodshed in Asperg (“Tabitha case”) and Ludwigsburg (knife attack on a 79-year-old man), and why is information about them being withheld from the public?” asks Dr. Rainer Podeswa Member of the State Parliament (MdL), who is also responsible for the Ludwigsburg constituency.
The Eppingen MP has made a parliamentary question to the Ministry of the Interior. Among other things, the question is whether the 43-year-old Somali man suspected of committing the crime in Ludwigsburg is a rejected or recognised asylum seeker, and in what way the man has previously become known to the police. The police have refused to inform the press about this and also do not want to disclose the nationality of the 79-year-old victim. Similarly, the public is still waiting for answers in the Tabitha case about a 35-year-old Syrian man who is urgently suspected of the crime.
Dr. Rainer Podeswa asks whether this kind of information policy possibly results in more “protection of offenders” than protection of victims. He wants to know from Interior Minister Strobl what concrete considerations and justifications are used to weight the “personal rights” of the suspects against the public interest in information.
“In the “Tabitha case”, no confession can be expected from the suspect after three weeks that would justify the secrecy of ‘perpetrator knowledge’,” says Dr. Rainer Podeswa. “The public cannot be kept in the dark about such bloody deeds until an indictment or trial, otherwise only rumours will arise and trust in the state and its authorities will be unnecessarily undermined.”