chancellor denounces rape-killing

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has denounced the rape and killing of a university student as a “tragic event,” responding for the first time to a case that has inflamed passions since police arrested a 17-year-old Afghan migrant last week. 

A nationalist party has seized on the death to argue that Merkel’s government bears a share of the blame. “If it turns out that (the perpetrator) was an Afghan refugee then that needs to be condemned, absolutely, just like with any other murderer,” Merkel said. 

“But that shouldn’t be combined with a rejection of an entire group, just like we don’t draw conclusions about an entire group from (the actions of) one person in other instances,” she added.