German interior minister defends deportation of Berlin terrorist associate

Germany’s interior minister on Thursday defended the hasty deportation of an Islamic extremist who had dinner with Anis Amri the night before he killed 12 people in a 2016 truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market.

Bilel Ben Ammar, a fellow Tunisian, is being sought for questioning by a parliamentary probe examining shortcomings in the investigation of the December 19, 2016 Berlin attack. After the attack Amri fled to Italy, where he was shot and killed by police.

Presenting a report on Ammar to reporters in Berlin, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said he did not know the whereabouts of Ammar, who was deported to Tunisia on February 1, 2017.

“His place of residence is not known to me at present,” Seehofer said, adding that he could not rule out the possibility Ammar had returned to Germany.

Seehofer said his office had reviewed Ammar’s expedited deportation and concluded that it was “thoroughly understandable” because Ammar was viewed as a security threat and any involvement in the Berlin attack could not be proven at the time.

German media reported last week that Ammar had ties to Moroccan intelligence and took photos of the Berlin Christmas market after the attack, which he sent to an unknown phone number two hours later.

The bombshell report has spawned speculation from opposition lawmakers that there may have been a cover-up, which the government has denied.

Earlier this week, German media reported that Ammar may have also been in Nice around the time of the July 14, 2016 truck ramming attack by a Tunisian Islamist in the French city that killed 86 people.

A screenshot obtained from German police documents showed Ammar had a boarding pass on his phone for a flight from Berlin to Nice dated July 6, 2016 — eight days before the Nice attack. The name on the boarding pass was an alias.

Ammar applied for asylum in Germany under different names and separately claimed to be from Morocco, Egypt and Libya.

Investigators found the boarding pass on Ammar’s confiscated phone after he had already been deported to Tunisia. Other photos on the phone showed Ammar in Paris with friends in the days before and after the Nice attack.

It’s unclear if Ammar had any contact with the Nice attacker, who is suspected of having had accomplices.

Further pictures found on the phone included those Ammar took from the site of Christmas market attack months before it occurred, as well as images sent to him via social media after the attack.

Seehofer declined to comment on the report that Ammar may have been in Nice, citing an ongoing investigation.

Source: DW