Murder of Mia Valentin

Mia Valentin was murdered on 27 December 2017 in a drugstore in the town of Kandel.[4] The murderer, Abdul Dawodzai, a former refugee claimant from Afghanistan, had been placed in the same class as Valentin.[5] Dawoodzai and Valentin had had a relationship for several months. In the beginning of December 2017, after she had ended the relationship, he allegedly began to threaten Valentin. She and her parents made complaints to the police in mid-December. On the morning of 27 December 2017, police officers had visited the perpetrator. Later that day, he stabbed Valentin after he followed her into the store, using a 20 cm knife. She died shortly afterwards in hospital.[3][6] The suspect allegedly bought the knife at the same store just before he attacked her.[7]

On 15 December 2017, the victim's parents had filed a criminal complaint, alleging that suspect had slandered and threatened their daughter.[8]

The perpetrator was named as Abdul Mobin Dawodzai from Afghanistan. He came to Germany in April 2016 and initially resided in Frankfurt, later in a center for young refugees in Germersheim. His asylum claim was rejected in February 2017, but he was not deported.[9] The parents of the victim strongly doubted that he was only 15 years old, so an investigation was launched to determine his true age.[1] The perpetrator had been known to the police for a serious bodily injury crime committed in school.[3][6][10]

The suspect was charged with murder,[10] and underwent a medical examination in response to allegations that he misstated his age.[1] The age assessment was carried out by evaluating X-rays of hand, clavicle and dentition of the suspect. The findings of the examination were presented by the State's attorney in February 2018. These findings concluded that the suspect was at least 17 years and six months old, but most likely around 20.[11]

During the trial he was tried as a minor. Dawodzai's lawyer denied he was older than 20. The prosecution called for a 10 year sentence while the defense attorney asked for a 7.5 year sentence.[12]

On 3 September 2018, Dawodzai was sentenced to 8 years and 6 months in prison for murder of Valentin. Maximilian Ender, Dawodzai's lawyer called the sentenced "correct" and said that his client had accepted the verdict.[12] Locals protested outside the court calling the sentence of 8.5 years for murder too short.[12]

Because of the youth of the accused, the case was heard privately in a juvenile court.[25] Anti-immigration demonstrators assembled in the streets of Kandel in September 2018 to await the announcement of the verdict, with counter-protests from locals.[26] When the sentence of 8 years in prison for the convicted murderer was announced, Deutsche Welle noted that the social media accounts of Alternative for Germany politicians "lit up" with criticism of the brevity of the sentence, while members of the governing Social Democratic Party were silent. A political consultant said that #Kandel had enabled the right wing to "take a singular, exceptional event and "abstract" it into a national problem".[27]

The documentary The Girl and the Refugee, which is Episode 5 of the series What Moves Germany, was shown on 4 June 2018 on Das Erste, a public television channel in Germany. The documentary is about the Kandel murder by stabbing of Mia Valentin, and about the attempted murder by stabbing five days earlier of a 17-year-old girl by another Afghan refugee in Darmstadt. Looking for answers, the filmmakers travel to Afghanistan where they are told that a woman who separates from her man "must be killed." The documentary is an hr-SWR co-production, directed by Christian Gropper and Kai Diezemann.[28][29][30][31]

• Immigration and crime in Germany
• Reutlingen knife attack
• Murder of Mireille B
• Murder of Maria Ladenburger