An Iraqi rejected asylum-seeker suspected of raping and murdering a 14-year-old German girl is being transported back to Germany by authorities and is expected to land on Saturday amid protests.
Ali Bashar, a 20-year-old Iraqi Kurd, was arrested in northern Iraq by Kurdish authorities on Friday night, 24 hours after German police named him as the prime suspect in the killing of German-Jewish teenager Susanna Feldman.
A protest march was held in the 14-year-old’s home city of Mainz on Friday, with further protests and vigils expected in the coming days.
The girl's death has sparked debate about whether Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy was culpable.
Various demonstrations have been announced for Saturday afternoon, including one organised by the nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) which has called for the government to resign over the case, but also demonstrations against racism and raising awareness about sexual violence.
Bashar has confessed to the crime, Tarik Ahmad, chief of police of the northwestern Iraqi city of Dohuk, told AFP.
The police chief said the suspect had admitted to strangling the girl when she threatened to call police on him.
German magazine Der Spiegel reported that, according to a group of asylum seekers who knew Mr Bashar, the suspect was dealing drugs and had likely also acted under the influence.
Mr Bashar is expected to land at Frankfurt Airport, the state prosecutor’s office has confirmed.
The schoolgirl’s body was found hidden near railway lines in a wood on the outskirts of the Wiesbaden on Wednesday, after an unnamed 13-year-old witness came forward to police.
Mr Bashar had been living in Germany since arriving with his family during the migrant influx of 2015.
His asylum claim was rejected in December 2016 but he appealed against the decision and was allowed to remain in Germany while the case was ongoing.
He flew back to Iraq together with his parents and five siblings after the victim went missing, travelling on air tickets booked under another name.
The authorities have so far provided no explanation of how this was possible.
It has since emerged that Bashar had an extensive police file in Germany dating back to April 2016, and was facing charges over a violent robbery in March this year and a separate case of carrying an illegal knife.
He was also investigated by police as a possible suspect in an earlier rape of an 11-year-old girl at the migrant shelter where he was staying.
The murder case comes at time when Germany’s Office for Migration and Refugees is embroiled in a scandal amid accusations of the mishandling of asylum applications and corruption.