German police have finally released CCTV
images of ‘Arab looking men’ who allegedly beat up and robbed British
tourists in Cologne – months after the attack.
The two Britons, who were both 18 at the
time of the incident, were allegedly attacked by a group of six males,
leaving them hospitalised.
The attack came in August when the two
young men took a tram from Cologne’s Cathedral Square, the site of the
New Year migrant sex attacks in 2015, and they were set upon.
German police
have finally released CCTV images of ‘Arab looking men’ who allegedly
beat up and robbed British tourists in Cologne – months after the
attack.
When the two Brits got of the tram at Slabystrasse and walked towards the Muelheim Bridge over the Rhine, they were attacked.
The gang reportedly punched and kicked both men multiple times, stealing a mobile phone and a wallet.
The mob were said to be between 18 and 20
years old, with one of them described as being ‘particularly large’,
while the others were said to be of normal build and ‘Arab-looking’.
But Cologne police have only released the
CCTV pictures now in the hope witnesses might recognise those who
carried out the attack.
Cologne police have only released the CCTV pictures now in the hope witnesses might recognise those who carried out the attack.
In Germany, the police are often slow to
release CCTV footage of suspects, and are often hamstrung by local
authorities’ regulations.
In many cases, they only release images of suspects when all other means of solving a crime have come to a dead end.
In addition, authorities sometimes censor
such footage out of fear it will incite racial hatred, as happened when a
politician prevented the police from posting an appeal for help in the
search for the suspect in the Berlin Christmas attack.
The attack
came in August when the two young men took a tram from Cologne’s
Cathedral Square, the site of the New Year migrant sex attacks in 2015.
Till Steffen, 43, head of the judicial
authority in Hamburg, allegedly stopped the local police from posting a
picture of Anis Amri, 24, who killed 12 in the attack, on their website.
In a much-derided statement, the Hamburg
police claim they were only able to post a text about the fact that
police had images of the suspect without actually posting the images
themselves.
According to German media, Steffen
justified his stance by saying that such posts on police websites could
provoke insulting or inflammatory comments likely to inspire racial
hatred.
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