NOT CLEAR WHETHER THE SUSPECT IN BRUTAL ATTACK ON WOMAN IN BERLIN U BAHN IS IN BULGARIA

Berlin prosecutor’s office disseminated an announcement in the media on 15th of December saying it was searching for the Bulgarian national suspected for the attack of the woman in a subway station in the German capital. An arrest warrant has been issued for the 27 year old Svetoslav S. The investigation against him and his three companions is on-going. No further details will be given at this stage, the announcement says.

Currently, it is not clear whether the arrest warrant is international or not and whether the suspect was hiding in Bulgaria.

The spokesperson of the prosecutor’s office Martin Steltner told DW that at this stage it was difficult to say whether the suspect was in Bulgaria or in Germany.

On the question by DW of whether there was information about alleged affiliation of the four suspects to the Roma minority and of kinship between them, Steltner said: "As regards kinship, I cannot refute, on the other question I have no information."

According to Steltner, Svetoslav S. is currently wanted on suspicion for inflicting grievous bodily harm, but it is possible to be charged with attempted murder. In an interview for DW, Bulgaria’s ambassador in Berlin Radin Naidenov expressed his great satisfaction that the authorities of the two countries just in one hour managed in collaboration to identify the perpetrator. According to Naidenov, the crime in the Berlin subway will not negatively affect the image of Bulgarians in Germany because Germans can distinguish between large majority of Bulgarians and a separate incident.