Friday, 12 August 2016

Germany 'was warned about Ansbach suicide bomber'

investigators at the scene of the Ansbach bomb on 24 July 2016
Fifteen people were wounded when Mohamed Daleel blew himself up in Ansbach
Germany was warned in advance that a Syrian who blew himself up last month might carry out a "spectacular" suicide attempt if it tried to deport him.

Mohammed Daleel was due to be deported when he detonated a bomb in the Bavarian town of Ansbach on 24 July. A 25-page psychological assessment written more than a year before mentioned his "extreme spirit".
Mohammed Daleel
Mohammed Daleel had left a letter pledging allegiance to the leader of IS
It was sent to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. It warned that attempts to deport Mr Daleel could result in a "spectacular" suicide attempt.

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Before the bombing, Mohammed Daleel left a message pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the so-called Islamic State.

Axel von Maltitz
Axel von Maltitz believes Daleel had "very strong" PTSD
The attacker tried to get into an open-air concert attended by 2,500 people, but was stopped by a security guard. Instead he detonated a rucksack filled with explosives in a local beer garden, killing himself and wounding 15 others.

Ten days before the attack, Mr Daleel had received notice from the German authorities that he was to be deported to Bulgaria.

Under the Dublin regulation, refugees are required to claim asylum in their first port of entry into the EU. Mr Daleel crossed into Bulgaria from Turkey in 2013. He later claimed he had been abused in detention in Bulgaria.

The psychological assessment of Mohammed Daleel, seen by BBC Newsnight, was written by Axel von Maltitz, a trauma therapist in the town of Lindau. Mr von Maltitz treated the 27-year-old Syrian for psychological problems until January 2016.

He believes the deportation notice triggered Mr Daleel's attack. "That is always what he promised. That was always his reaction as answer to the information that he was to be deported.

"I warned them. That is what I wrote. 'Be careful if he has to be deported to Bulgaria'." Axel von Maltitz first met Mohammed Daleel in January 2015, after the Syrian had cut his wrists following an earlier deportation order.

"He had bandages around his arms because that was still quite fresh. He was highly traumatised. "Traumatisation has very typical symptoms. He had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder severely. Very strong."

Mr Daleel claimed he was an opposition activist in Syria and that he had been imprisoned and tortured on three occasions between 2008 and 2011.