Berlin terror attack suspect had asylum application rejected

The Tunisian man suspected of carrying out a deadly attack on a Berlin Christmas market on Monday had his asylum application rejected, a German minister has confirmed.

Ralf Jager, the interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, told a press conference that German authorities had denied Anis Amri’s asylum application and issued a deportation order earlier this year, after security checks uncovered suspected links to the Islamic State militant group.

“However, the man could not be deported because he had no valid identification papers,” the minister added.

He said that the suspect had been living in Berlin since February, having previously lived in North Rhine-Westphalia and the city of Freiburg, in Baden-Wurttemberg.

At least 12 people were killed and several injured when a lorry ploughed into crowds at a popular Christmas market in central Berlin. The suspect was named as Anis Amri after identification documents were found inside the lorry.

Stephan Mayer, a politician from Angela Merkel’s ruling CDU, said that Amri had ties to a network of Islamic extremists, which reportedly included an extremist preacher known as Abu Walaa, who was arrested as part of a cell of IS supporters sending fighters to Syria earlier this year.

Der Spiegel reported that he was born in 1992 in the Tunisian city of Tataouine, although he reportedly went under at least two other aliases and gave authorities differing dates of birth.

A security database entry from February reportedly showed authorities suspected he had links to IS, which was reported to be using Tataouine as a transit base for fighters last year.

He was classified as a terror threat and put under increased surveillance before a court in Ravensburg issued an order for his deportation in June. He was also reportedly the subject of a meeting of Germany’s Joint Terror Protection Centre, involving federal and local government officials.

A manhunt for Amri has spread from Germany throughout the EU’s Schengen area amid warning that he could pose a further threat. A gun he used to shoot the Polish driver of the hijacked lorry has not been found.