Germany updates: Police chief warns of youth radicalization – DW – 05/24/2025
The head of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, has told newspapers that some young people are organizing themselves in groups to commit "serious crimes" after being radicalized by far-right ideologies.
His remarks come after German police this week cracked down on a far-right extremist cell with members as young as 14.
Train services at Hamburg's main station are meanwhile back to normal after 18 people were injured on Friday in a knife attack by a female suspect.
This is a roundup of the top news stories from Germany on May 24, 2025.
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Germany updates: Merz defiant after court migration ruling – DW – 06/03/2025
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Germany jails Syrian pro-Assad fighter over war crimes – DW – 06/03/2025
A German court has handed a life sentence to a Syrian man for crimes against humanity, including murder and torture. The man committed the atrocities while fighting for dictator Bashar Assad in Syria's civil war. A court in the southern German city of Stuttgart on Tuesday sentenced a Syrian man to life in prison for war crimes it said he committed during Syria's civil war while fighting for the country's former dictator, Bashar Assad. The trial, which began last October, involved testimony from 30 witnesses, most of them Syrian nationals now living around the world. The court said the verdict could be appealed. What was the man accused of? The 33-year-old was found guilty of leading a Hezbollah-backed militia that committed atrocities against Sunni Muslim civilians in his home town of Busra al-Sham in southern Syria. The Lebanese Iranian-backed Shiite group Hezbollah gave its support to Assad during the civil war. Among other things, the court found that in 2012, the militia raided and plundered the house of an unarmed 21-year-old student, shooting him dead. The victim's mother and brother were among the witnesses for the prosecution. The court also said that in 2013, the militia beat three people with Kalashnikovs before handing them over to Assad's military intelligence, which tortured them and held them captive under inhumane conditions. The court verdict also said the group in 2014 forced a 40-year-old man and his family from their home, after which the man was tortured to such extent that he was unable to walk owing to his injuries. The man was arrested in December 2023 in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, of which Stuttgart is the capital. Trials under universal jurisdiction German prosecutors have made use of universal jurisdiction laws to seek trials for several suspects believed to have committed atrocities during Syria's civil war. In 2022, a German court handed a life sentence to ex-intelligence officer Anwar Raslan for murder, rape and crimes against humanity committed at the notorious Al-Khatib jail in 2011 and 2012, the first conviction for state-backed torture committed during Syria's civil war. Several other cases relating to crimes committed during the Syrian civil war are being heard by German courts, as well as in France and Sweden. Syria's civil war, which began after a crackdown by Assad's regime on peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011, ended only in late 2024 when the autocratic leader was ousted in an Islamist-led rebel offensive. Edited by: Wesley Rahn
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Germany updates: Merz defiant after court blow – DW – 06/03/2025
06/03/2025 June 3, 2025 Germany's Merz defends migration plans after legal setback on asylum Merz said the ruling may narrow his administration's room for maneuver, but there was still wiggle room Image: Thilo Schmuelgen/POOL/AFP via Getty Images German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has defended his government's effort to turn away asylum seekers at the country's borders, one day after a court blocked the move. The emergency decision by the Berlin Administrative Court was a blow for Merz, who has promised he will curb irregular migration. Speaking in Berlin, the chancellor said the ruling may narrow his administration's room for maneuver, but there was still scope. "We know that we can still carry out [border] rejections." Merz, who took office last month, said his government would "of course do this within the framework of existing European law." "We will do so in order to protect public safety and order in our country and to prevent cities and municipalities from being overburdened," he added. Merz stressed that Germany would have to "maintain controls on the internal" until the situation at the European Union's external borders has improved significantly in his view. Shortly after taking office last month, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt ordered police to beef up border checks and turn away irregular migrants, even if they apply for asylum. The court ruling on Monday found that three Somalis who were turned back to Poland on May 9 should have been processed under the European Union's Dublin Regulation for asylum cases. The court found that the government's evidence to proclaim a "national emergency" to justify the measure lacked sufficient evidence. Merz's immigration policies have been repeatedly criticized as violating both German and EU law.
