German Police Shoot Asylum Seeker Terrorist Dead, Wasn’t Deported Because of EU Human Rights Law

Yesterday morning German police shot dead a knife-wielding terrorist on the streets of Berlin after he stabbed a female police officer in the neck. The Iraqi citizen was a convicted terrorist and an asylum seeker who Germany had been powerless to deport because of his ‘human rights.’

Rafik Mohamad Yousef, 41, was a member of a terrorist group with links to al-Qaeda, and came to Germany as an asylum seeker. He was jailed for eight years in 2008 after being found guilty of planning to attack the Iraqi Prime Minister.

However, he was released in early 2013, after just five years behind bars, and was allowed to remain in Germany. He reportedly threatened police officers upon his release.

He claimed that his life was endangered back in his native Iraq, and therefore European Court of Human Rights rules did not permit his deportation. His safety was deemed to be more important than that of the German citizens he clearly posed a threat to.

Bild Newspaper claimed Yousef’s electronic tag was removed just hours before the attack on Thursday morning.

Yousef went for the female police officer as she stepped out of her patrol car, stabbing her in the neck, just above her protective clothing, The Telegraph reports.

The officer’s partner immediately drew his gun, shooting Yousef four times. Four more police vehicles arrived on the scene and one other officer is thought to have opened fire.

As well as the stab wounds, a stray bullet is thought to have struck the female officer in the kidney area. She was rushed to hospital where she received emergency surgery and is now thought to be in a stable condition.

Paramedics also attempted to save Yousef, but were unable to revive him.

Police initially attempted to present the case as a “random act of violence,” until his emerging terrorist credentials made this impossible towards the evening.

Dirk Feuerberg, Berlin’s chief prosecutor, said in a statement: “The person killed is an Iraqi citizen known to us who was convicted in 2008 of membership in a foreign terrorist organisation and sentenced to eight years imprisonment.”

Yousef was convicted along with three others for attempting to assassinate the former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during a visit to Berlin in 2004. The group was also convicted of membership of Ansar al-Islam, a jihadist group from Iraqi Kurdistan with links to Al-Qaeda.