After a good two years, the committee investigating the racist attack in Hanau is finishing its work. The final report will be presented and discussed in the state parliament today. Survivors miss central things.
It has become noticeably quieter in the rooms of the “Initiative 19. February” in Hanau city center. There was a lot of activity here, especially in the first weeks and months after the attack in spring 2020. Shortly after the crime that claimed the lives of nine young people, survivors and supporters came together. They rented rooms just a few steps away from the first crime scene of the attack, where they sat together again and again, discussed things, planned demos or conducted interviews.
“I can remember very well how we fought for the investigative committee,” said Said Etris Hashemi. He lost his brother Said Nesar in the attack. He himself survived seriously injured. “We spoke to a lot of politicians and I still remember how we were laughed at at the beginning for it.”
Because of the committee of inquiry into the murder of Walter Lübcke that was already underway at the time, a committee of inquiry into the Hanau attack was considered unlikely. But it also exists because of the commitment of the survivors.
Final report contains 642 pages
During our visit, Hashemi is sitting with a supporter in the initiative’s rooms. There is no one else there. The chairs and sofas here are increasingly left empty. The wall design, however, has remained unchanged: large posters hang next to photos of the victims. Then: ten central questions to which the initiative demanded answers at the beginning of the Hanau Committee – “in the hope that these ten questions will also be answered at the end,” explains Hashemi.
“What did the authorities know about the perpetrator and his father, and how was this information handled?” is one of the questions. Another: “Why wasn’t the emergency number 110 available on the evening of the crime? Who in the authorities and in politics knew about the emergency call problem in Hanau?”
Said Etris Hashemi in the rooms of the “February 19th Initiative”
There are now answers to the questions: on the 642 pages of the final report. The members of the investigative committee will put it up for discussion in the plenary session of the Hesse state parliament on Tuesday.
Said Etris Hashemi knows the report and is dissatisfied with it. The report states that there were oversights surrounding the attack. “All of this is now clear, no one questions it,” says Hashemi, “but no consequences are being drawn.”
Survivors continue to search for answers
In addition to the necessary information, consequences were one of the core demands of the survivors. With regard to the final report, Armin Kurtovic also speaks of a “slap in the face”: “The words ‘failure of the authorities’, ‘failure of the state’ – no one wants to use those words. But it’s so obvious,” he thinks.
Kurtovic lost his son Hamza in the attack. He died at the second crime scene, in the “Arena Bar” in the Kesselstadt district. In its final report, the investigative committee came to the conclusion that the emergency exit door there was locked.
The public prosecutor’s office sees it differently and has stopped the corresponding investigations. “How am I supposed to leave this alone?” he asks rhetorically, explaining why he continues to research his son’s death to this day, looks for witnesses and evidence, and files reports. “I would have liked, no: I was convinced that something like that wasn’t possible in this country. But the more I’m interested in it and read about it, the more I see: There’s a continuity.”
“Are we even being taken seriously?”
The NSU series of murders, the murder of Walter Lübcke, and finally the attack in Hanau – it was said again and again: something like this should never happen again. Hanau was supposed to be a turning point. Many of the survivors are certain that the Hanau attack can only be a turning point if there are serious consequences. But these are exactly what they are missing.
“Then I ask the question: Are we even being taken seriously?” says Said Etris Hashemi. Maybe he can ask this question to MPs on Tuesday. In any case, the survivors were invited to the Hessian state parliament to debate the final report.