German Court Rejected Deportation Detention; Failed Iraqi Asylum Seeker Now Accused In Teen Train Death

A 31-year-old failed asylum seeker from Iraq has been detained in Göttingen on suspicion of pushing a 16-year-old girl onto train tracks at Friedland station on Aug. 11, fatally injuring her. Investigators initially treated the incident as an accident, but DNA matching the suspect was later found on the victim's shoulder. The man applied for asylum in Germany in 2022 but was denied and issued a deportation order to Lithuania under the Dublin Regulations; a Hanover court refused a deportation detention order in July. Police reported he tested positive for alcohol after being interviewed and has since been placed in a psychiatric hospital amid reports of paranoid schizophrenia. It remains undecided whether he would face imprisonment or psychiatric commitment if convicted.