The New Year’s Eve riots with attacks on the police and fire brigade are also the concern of the Interior Committee of the Berlin House of Representatives. The Berlin police have now handed over 22 cases involving around 10 suspects to the public prosecutor, said police chief Barbara Slowik. According to the current status, there are 49 procedures for attacks on police officers with 37 suspects and 53 procedures in which firefighters were attacked.
The police are working “really with high pressure” to clarify what happened, Slowik emphasized. She concentrates primarily on the evaluation of the extensive video material. However, the first witnesses would also be heard.
The discussion about the consequences after the riots falls in the middle of the Berlin election campaign for the repeat election on February 12 – and will thus be the focus of the first meeting of the committee in 2023. A dispute about the form of the work-up has already flared up in advance. Domestic politicians from the SPD, Greens and Left factions accused the CDU faction of populism and election campaigns instead of an interest in factual information.
CDU politician: Name the group of perpetrators precisely
The background is a list of questions for the interior committee, in which the CDU also asks for the first names of suspects with German nationality. The CDU state and parliamentary group leader Kai Wegner defended this again. “I think it’s very important to know exactly who the perpetrators are. I would say the same thing if they were right-wing extremists or left-wing extremists,” he told “Welt”.
“There are young people who were born and grew up here, have a German passport and still don’t feel like they belong where integration hasn’t been successful,” Wegner was quoted as saying by the newspaper. The more precisely you name the group of perpetrators, the more effective you can make prevention offers.
Dozens of emergency services and rescuers injured
On New Year’s Eve, police officers and firefighters were attacked in several German cities, and they were particularly violent in Berlin. The police and fire brigade speak of a new intensity of violence. According to previous information, around 40 emergency services were injured by the police. During the operations of the fire brigade, 15 rescuers were injured, it said.
According to their own statements, the Berlin police have so far conducted more than 350 criminal and administrative offense proceedings. According to the Berlin police, among the 145 suspects temporarily arrested were 45 Germans and 17 other nationalities, including 27 Afghans and 21 Syrians. 94 of the 145 are under the age of 25, including 27 minors.
