12/4/19
German federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday that they are taking over investigations into the murder of a Georgian asylum-seeker in Berlin, confirming earlier reports. With Berlin's attorney general saying evidence points to Russian state involvement, pressure is likely to mount on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to send a strong signal to Moscow. What we know so far:
• Prosecutors said there is "sufficient evidence" to indicate that the man's murder was carried out on the behalf of the Russian state or by Chechnya.
• The German Foreign Ministry also announced that two employees at Russia's embassy in Berlin had been designated personae non grate and were expelled.
• The names and positions of the diplomats were not given, although the ministry said it took the move after Russian authorities failed to "cooperate sufficiently" in the murder investigation.
• Russia's foreign ministry called the move to expel the diplomats an "unfriendly, groundless step" and vowed to respond.
In late August, 40-year-old Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was shot in an "execution-style" killing at Berlin's Kleiner Tiergarten park. The suspect in the case, a 49-year-old Russian national, carried out the drive-by shooting on a bicycle in broad daylight — shooting the victim in the head and chest, prosecutors said. From the beginning, the killing raised concerns about Russia's intelligence agency possibly being involved. Moscow has denied any involvement in the case. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she plans to raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin when she meets him next week for talks on the Ukraine peace process in France. "We have received no active help from Russia in solving this case," she told reporters on the sidelines of the NATO summit in London. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer welcomed the federal prosecutor's decision to take on the murder case. "That says something about the significance of this crime. The government is still discussing what further consequences we will draw from this," he told a press conference in Berlin." Federal prosecutors in Germany take over investigations when there is a strong suspicion of involvement by a foreign state.
