After spending 11 months in Offenburg’s hospital, 76-year-old German pensioner Detlef J. has died from injuries he sustained after being beaten into a coma by a refugee from Somalia.
Last year, the 26-year-old Ali M. brutally beat the pensioner for no reason when the elderly man was on his way home from visiting friends. A witness who saw the beating said that Ali M. screamed out “Allahu Akbar” after randomly targeting the man.
Detlef J., whose last name has not been released due to privacy laws in Germany, suffered severe injuries from which he fell into a coma and was tied to a hospital bed since the attack.
After a nearly year-long struggle from the injuries he sustained, Detlef J. died alone in a hospital after coronavirus restrictions kept his twin sons from visiting him.
Detlef’s twin sons Ralf and Markus, aged 51, commented on the death of their father in an interview with German daily Bild.
The two brothers state that they were last allowed to see their father on April 8 due to Germany’s anti-coronavirus restrictions.
As for the migrant assailant, in November 2019, the Offenburg Regional Court sentenced the attacker, Ali M, to admission to a psychiatric clinic for serious physical injury.
It is currently unclear how long Ali M. will have to stay in the clinic but despite screaming out “Allahu Akbar”, the man was not sentenced to prison.
Ralf added that his father looked very peaceful when they last visited, although he had seemed to be very fearful and desperate before.
The twin brothers agree that their father has now been released from all his pain and suffering and can only find words of gratitude:
“We are grateful that daddy was saved!” the twins told Bild.
Usually, if people do not die of natural causes, an autopsy is ordered. In the case of Detlef J., however, the prosecutor decided not to bother ordering one.
“The case is closed. According to medical judgment, previous physical injury is the cause of death,” Dr. Herwig Schäfer, chief prosecutor in Offenburg, explained.
Son Ralf said that after his father’s cremation, the family’s closest relatives and friends are going to say goodbye personally to a man they loved.
“Although my father died alone, now there is a lot of people standing on his side,” Ralf added.
Many people have expressed their condolences on social media. One user on Twitter wrote, “Pensioner Detlef J. fought for eleven months, half blind and beaten, he wanted to return to life. All in vain. There will be no special ceremonies for him, no apologies from the Chancellor for his family. Are certain victims less important?”
Elf Monate kämpfte Rentner Detlef J., halb blind und zum Pflegefall geprügelt, wollte ins Leben zurück. Vergeblich. – Für ihn wird es keine Sondersendungen geben, für seine Familie keine Entschuldigung der Kanzlerin. Sind bestimmte Opfer weniger wichtig? https://t.co/wvPrfDZCaF
— Luzy Wild (@OBundWIE) April 22, 2020
Detlef J. may just be one victim but migrants make up a disproportionate amount of the perpetrators of crime in Germany, especially for violent assaults and murders, according to statistics from the German Federal Police (BKA).
According to last year’s statistics, while making up only 12 percent of the population, the proportion of foreigners among criminal suspects was 37 percent. In the case of murder, that proportion was even higher, with nearly 40 percent of suspects listed as “immigrants”.
The Federal Criminal Police Office’s (BKA) first quarter report for 2019 also showed that as a group, refugees, asylum seekers and individuals with no German residency who can’t be deported, known as Geduldete in German, are the most overrepresented group featuring criminal suspects in all of Germany.
