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CRIME

Dead baby found in Weser river was murdered

A newborn found last week in the Weser river in northern Germany did not die of natural causes but was killed after being born, forensic tests have shown.

Published: 11 July 2008 14:08 CEST
Dead baby found in Weser river was murdered
A file shot of the Weser river in North Rhine-Westphalia. Photo:DPA

Police and the prosecutors‘ office in Bad Oeynhausen in North Rhine-Westphalia reported on Friday that the infant girl’s cause of death was still not known, but that further tests would be done.

The body was found by a fisherman along the bank of the river and investigators believe the child was born between Monday and Thursday of last week. It is thought that she was thrown into the river in the town of Rinteln, Vlotho, Bad Oeynhausen or Porta Westfalica.

Thus far, investigators have no solid leads as to the identity of the mother. Police are looking for people who might know of a woman who was recently pregnant but who now does not have a newborn.

Germany has been plagued with a spate of gruesome infanticide cases in the last few years which have shocked the country. One woman who killed nine of her babies was sentenced to 15 years in prison in early April.

In May, a 44-year-old woman was arrested when her family found three dead babies in her freezer near Bonn.

CRIME

Germany arrests seven suspected members of IS fundraising network

German prosecutors said Wednesday they had arrested seven people accused of collecting money to send to the Islamic State group in Syria.

Published: 31 May 2023 10:50 CEST
Germany arrests seven suspected members of IS fundraising network

The four Germans, a German-Moroccan dual national, one Kosovar and a Turkish citizen, were accused of belonging “to an international network that supported the terrorist activities of the Islamic State in Syria through financial donations”, the federal prosecutor’s office said.

Starting in 2020, the group used the Telegram messaging service to appeal for contributions, prosecutors said.

Their network included financial intermediaries who “collected money or set up accounts” for the donations.

From these accounts the money was transferred to IS members in Syria or to designated middlemen.

The funds were used to support IS members detained in northern Syrian camps and in some cases helped finance their escape, prosecutors said.

In total, €65,000 were collected through the network.

The seven suspects were said to have acted as financial intermediaries and played a “central role” in the fundraising group, prosecutors said.

The arrests were part of a nationwide swoop against people who had made donations to IS via the group.

Over 1,000 police officers searched over 90 properties across Germany on Wednesday.

READ ALSO: Islamic State returnees ‘will not face arrest in Germany’

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