Daily Times

BERLIN: German prosecutors are investigating shots fired at the car of a German-Turkish soccer player who was an outspoken critic of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, while he was driving near the west German city of Aachen late on Sunday, the prosecutors said on Monday. Deniz Naki, 28 was given a suspended sentence of 18 months by a Turkish court in April 2017 for “terrorist propaganda” in support of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). He told Die Welt newspaper he assumed the shots were fired by a Turkish agent or someone else who opposed his views. Katja Schlenkermann-Pitts, a senior prosecutor in Aachen, said authorities were investigating the incident as an attempted homicide, but said her office could not confirm Naki’s concerns. She said prosecutors were looking “in all directions.” The Interior Ministry had no information on the case, spokesman Johannes Dimroth told a regular government news conference. He said he had no doubt that Naki’s statements would be addressed by prosecutors as part of the investigation. The incident occurred around 11 p.m. on the A4 highway near the town of Dueren, where Naki grew up, as he was returning home after visiting a friend.

Published in Daily Times, January 9^th 2018.