Neo-Nazi Youths Allegedly Stab German
Three neo-Nazi youths stabbed a man in the back in a hate attack early Tuesday, police said, including one suspect who was on trial just last month for the death of an Algerian asylum seeker in the same eastern German city.
The victim in Tuesday's attack in Guben, a German who the youths thought looked Asian, suffered a 1.2-inch stab wound, police said in Cottbus.
The extremist youths had come into contact with a group of seven other youths and insulted the victim and shouted anti-foreigner remarks before the knife attack. Another youth suffered facial lacerations.
A witness called police and all three attackers were arrested.
One of the three had been among the 11 neo-Nazis sentenced last month in a Cottbus court for the 1999 death of 28-year-old Omar Ben Noui, who broke through a glass window and bled to death trying to avoid skinheads who were chasing him. In a ruling strongly criticized by the family and politicians, only three suspects received prison terms for manslaughter. Six others were sentenced to probation and two received court warnings.
Police declined to identify which of the defendants in that trial was involved in the recent attack.
Germany has struggled to stem the rising violence in the neo-Nazi scene, and officials have called on courts to give tough sentences along with federal prosecutors often taking over local cases.
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