THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
The German-born Algerian and Nigerian who were arrested in Göttingen in February on the suspicion of planning an Islamist-inspired attacks are to be deported as soon as possible, the authorities have announced yesterday.
The announcement followed the rejection of the appeal of the two Africans by the Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) in Leipzig, which refused their prayers to order the state of Lower Saxony not to expel them from the country. The court in rejecting the application said their case had no merits and would eventually fail even if their deportation was suspended.
The 22-year-old Nigerian citizen and the 27-year-old Algerian, who were supposed to have planned a terrorist attack, were arrested on 9 February during a massive police raid in Göttingen.
And they are to be deported even though they were born in Germany. It is however unclear if the two men did not also possess the German nationality. It was the first time in Germany’s history that such a decision has been taken, the German news agency dpa reported.
Lower Saxony’s interior minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) said he issued the deportation orders according to paragraph 58a of Germany’s Residence Act. The two persons then appealed to the Federal Administrative Court for the suspension of the orders but did not succeed.
The deportation is “a clear signal to all fanatics that we leave them no centimetre for their despicable plans,” said Pistorius. “You have to reckon with the full weight of the law, regardless of whether they have grown up here or not.”
The two Africans could now be deported in principle anytime now and the men would be barred from Germany indefinitely, said a ministry spokesman. Only a few formalities would have to be carried out.
In the case of the Algerian, the court made his deportation conditional on assurances from the Algerian government that he would not be tortured or subjected to any inhuman treatment.
According to the authorities, the two men had been classified as dangerous for their alleged support for the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) terror group and have been part of the Salafist scene in Göttingen for a long time.
Germany has taken an increasingly hard line over security issues following the Berlin Christmas market attack last December, where a rejected asylum-seeker from Tunisia national hijacked a truck and rammed it into a crowd, killing 12 people.
Sola Jolaoso
