The suspect in the case of the killed taxi driver in Berlin is said to have been on the run after another homicide in Belgium. An extradition procedure is pending against the 24-year-old at the Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office, said a spokesman for the authority on request. It’s about a homicide charge. The spokesman did not want to provide any further information, referring to the responsible judiciary in Brussels.
According to dpa information, the 24-year-old is said to have killed his partner in Belgium on April 4 and fled. He had been on the wanted list since April 5th. On April 6, he is said to have killed the taxi driver in Berlin.
The 49-year-old died on Thursday morning after a knife attack in the Grunewald residential area of Berlin. A passer-by found him. Witnesses were still trying to save the man. However, the taxi driver died in hospital.
Suspect in custody
According to the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, the suspect has been in custody in Schleswig-Holstein since last Saturday. The Flensburg judiciary said on Tuesday that the 24-year-old had been arrested by order of the Flensburg District Court. This was done in connection with the extradition proceedings that are ongoing at the Cologne judiciary, it was said.
At the same time, the 24-year-old was identified by investigators in Berlin as a suspect in the case of the killed taxi driver. According to a spokesman, the public prosecutor’s office in Berlin now wants to apply for another arrest warrant against the man who was born in Tunisia, so that he can be transferred to Berlin.
“Our proceedings will then take a back seat,” said the spokesman for the Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Berlin public prosecutor’s allegations must first be clarified before the extradition request from Belgium can be further examined.
Memorial to the killed taxi driver
In the meantime, the taxi guild in Berlin is commemorating the killed colleague and wants to help his family with a fundraiser. Taxi drivers would remember the victim with black ribbons on their vehicles, said the chairman of the guild, Leszek Nadolski, on Tuesday. A minute’s silence is planned at an event in the evening. The “Berliner Zeitung” had previously reported.
The Gustav Hartmann Support Association will collect donations, said Nadolski. He has the promise that the Taxi Foundation also wants to help. The organizations help taxi drivers who have become victims of crime.
The head of the taxi guild wants to announce the call for donations at the preview of the French movie “Taxi with Madeleine” in the Cinema Paris. According to Nadolski, the event has been planned for a long time. Now the meeting, to which politicians are also expected, will be used to commemorate the killed colleague. The 49-year-old was not a member of the guild and, to his knowledge, had only been driving a taxi in Berlin for two to three months.
