A German town mayor who was stabbed in a doner kebab shop in Novemeber by a man aggrieved over an influx of refugees does not feel resentful against his attacker, but cannot forgive him either, a court heard on Friday.
“I’m happy to have survived,” said Andreas Hollstein, the mayor of Altena, a German town of about 17,000 residents where a 56-year-old man allegedly stabbed the official with a kitchen knife in a politically motivated attack.
Hollstein at the time quoted his attacker as saying: “You are letting me die of thirst while bringing 200 refugees to Altena.”
After attacking the mayor, the accused was wrestled to the ground by the injured mayor and two of the kebab shop owners and held down until police arrived to arrest him.
Hollstein told the court on Friday that though he made a rapid recovery from the incident, it resulted in acute hearing loss in one of his ears and left him and his family traumatized.
He said that although he did not harbour any hate against his attacker, he did not forgive him either.
Under Hollstein, Altena took in more refugees than required under a national quota. The mayor held up by Chancellor Angela Merkel as exemplary in his efforts to support the asylum seekers.
“I regret my actions and am deeply shocked with myself,” the accused said in a statement read out by his lawyer at the start of the trial last month, saying he only wanted to “scare” the mayor by letting a blade touch his neck.
“I am not racist in character,” the accused said in his statement, instead attributing his behaviour to depression caused by the breakdown of his marriage and the loss of his job.
Migration has become one of Germany’s most sensitive political topics since a refugee crisis in 2015 saw around one million people enter Europe, mainly from the Middle East and North Africa.(dpa/NAN)
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