Man charged over killing of heroic German teacher

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/03/tugce-albayrak-killing-man-charged

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German prosecutors charged an 18-year-old man on Tuesday over the death of a young German-Turkish woman who has become a symbol of civic courage for giving her life trying to protect two teenage girls.

The suspect faces a charge of assault leading to the death of student teacher Tuğçe Albayrak, 23, who received a blow to the head in a car park outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Offenbach in the western state of Hesse on 15 November when she confronted a group of men who were harassing the girls.

She was put into a coma by the attack, which was captured on CCTV and later broadcast on national media, sparking a wave of sympathy and widespread revulsion. Days later, on her 23rd birthday, her family switched off her life-support system.

On Tuesday, prosecutors said they had laid charges against the suspect before a juvenile district court in the nearby city of Darmstadt. In keeping with strict privacy rules in German court cases, they did not release the defendant’s name or any other details of the case.

The German newspaper Bild reported that fellow inmates in the detention centre where the suspect is being held had assaulted him this week, breaking his nose.

About 1,000 mourners attended Albayrak’s funeral and a mass online petition has called for her to be posthumously awarded the federal order of merit for her bravery.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her support for awarding the honour. President Joachim Gauck called Albayrak a “role model” who showed “bravery and civil courage in an exemplary way”.