German court sentences man to life imprisonment for stabbing two girls

One of the teenage girls stabbed in the town of Illerkirchberg by the 27-year-old man died in December last year.

The 14-year-old, called Ece, died from 23 stab wounds and her friend aged 13 was critically injured.

Prosecutors said he attacked them after they saw his knife, which he intended to use at a local immigration office, BBC said.

They said he was angry over officials’ failure to issue him with a passport, which he needed in order to get married in Ethiopia.

The verdict judged his crime to be “particularly severe”, meaning he is very unlikely to get early release after serving 15 years in prison.

The Eritrean arrived in Germany in 2015, during an unusually large influx of asylum seekers, as the refugees were fleeing war and persecution.

The court in Ulm found that before last November he had integrated normally into German society, with a job, knowledge of German and a calm personality.

BBC reported that Okba B told the court he regretted his act and asked the families for forgiveness.

The verdict can still be appealed. But if it stands, prosecutors say, he could be deported during his prison term.

The case triggered much outrage in Germany, but the girls’ families said they did not want it to be exploited politically by anti-immigration groups. The girl who died was German from a Turkish-origin family.