German police warn of fake video about alleged lynching of Russian

Berlin, 21 Mar The German police warn of a fake video circulating on the internet and in which a woman recounts the alleged lynching of a Russian teenager by a group of Ukrainians in the city of Euskirchen, in western Germany. The Bonn Police, responsible for capital crimes in the area of Euskirchen, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, reports via their Twitter account that they “have no information about such violent assault or a death”. “Experts assume that this is a deliberate 'fake video' to incite hatred. We ask you not to continue sharing this video and to check with special attention the authenticity of all information, especially that coming from social networks,” he adds. The police state that the video recounts in Russian the aggression committed against a 16-year-old teenager in the Euskirchen area, allegedly beaten to death by a group of Ukrainians. The State Security Crime Protection Service of the Bonn Police has taken over the investigation of the fake video. According to the newspaper “Bild”, the one-minute, 26-second video shows a woman who tells her that a friend of hers explained to her that in a center for asylum-seekers, a 16-year-old teenager was beaten to death by Ukrainian refugees. At the end of the video, the woman breaks down to sob and puts her hand to her heart. The video had been shared on Twitter with the comment: “His crime: he spoke Russian (as his mother tongue). Daniel was a long-wanted son.” It has not yet been possible to clarify who the woman in the video is or where she is, but it is true that this Daniel does not exist and that there is no open investigation into this alleged murder. egw/jam/alf