Riot Migrants Claim They Didn’t Understand German Norms, Were Just Following Afghan Law

Migrants who were part of a gang that tore apart asylum accommodation and savagely attacked police officers in a riot last year are now in court, charged with aggravated breach of the peace.

Violence broke out in the migrant receiving centre in Suhl, Thuringa in August 2015 after a disagreement between migrants belonging to different sects of Islam living there turned bitter. One Afghan migrant in the centre was driven to tear pages out of a Koran and stuffed them into a toilet, and it was at this point that things took a turn for the worse.

As Breitbart London reported at the time, after other migrants attempted to kill the man, police had to move in to give protection. The wrath of the mob then turned on the officers, who had to retreat to a nearby building under a hail of thrown objects including stones and glass. The Thuringan court has now heard the testimony of a young female police officer, one of the first on the scene who was caught in this melé.

She said: “I perceived the mood to be aggressive, angry, hateful” and described while her fellow officers took refuge in a room with the man the gang was trying to kill the other migrants broke glass windows and threw objects. Some had dismantled beds and equipped themselves with the iron bars and wooden planks they had taken from them.

The officer revealed they were on the verge of drawing their handguns, but did not, restraint for which they were praised by the judge.

As her group retreated, one of her colleagues said “run, they are coming” as 100 people pursued the officers. Die Welt reports that despite the officers being in clearly marked uniforms, storms and glass bottles were thrown at them. Eyewitness reports at the time recalled the aggressors were screaming “Allah Akbar” as they advanced.

With the police at a safe distance, the rioters turned on their accommodation itself and tore it apart, demolishing walls, doors, and smashing windows.

Four of the Afghan migrants in the dock have refused to make an apology for attacking the officers, which they deny, but claim their attack on the Afghan man who tore the Koran was due to a misunderstanding. One of the men has made a plea to the court for understanding, reports Die Welt, as he didn’t understand the German legal system and that it is normal to threaten people who “desecrate” the Koran back in his home country.

Migrant-on-migrant violence has become a trademark of the Suhl centre. As reported by Breitbart London, just weeks before this disturbance in 2015 several migrants were refereed to hospital after fights at the centre, stemming from a protest over living conditions. Then in October, a four year old boy was hospitalised for kicking another migrant’s football.

The child suffered “massive bruising” after he inadvertently interrupted a football game. He was beaten around the head, and then hit with a rock. Police could not identify who had launched the attack.

Follow Oliver Lane on Twitter: Follow @Oliver_Lane or e-mail to: olane@breitbart.com