Iraqi gets life in jail over teen rape-murder in Germany
- 10 Jul 2019
Ali Bashar covers his face in front of the cameras upon entering the courtroom in Wiesbaden, Germany, on Wednesday. AFP
An Iraqi man was sentenced to life in jail by a German court on Wednesday over the rape and murder of a teenage girl that fuelled far-right protests against a mass influx of mostly Muslim migrants.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and other extremists have seized on the brutal killing of 14-year-old Susanna Maria Feldman in their campaign against Chancellor Angela Merkel's asylum policy.
The accused, rejected asylum seeker Ali Bashar, 22, was convicted of the killing and given life in prison.
The court in Wiesbaden, the city where the murder took place in May last year, also found the crime to be of exceptional severity, meaning that Bashar is unlikely to be granted parole after 15 years.
Agence France-Presse
