After rape-murder shocks Germany, suspect captured in Iraq

A failed Iraqi asylum seeker suspected of raping and murdering a teenage girl in Germany was arrested in Iraq overnight, German authorities said today, after his escape sparked outrage and raised questions over immigration and police failings.

Ali Bashar, 20, who is believed to have strangled 14-year-old Susanna Maria Feldman after sexually assaulting her, was "arrested by Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq at the request of German federal police", said German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer.

The arrest came after an outcry in Germany as police hunting the fugitive admitted that Bashar had fled with his family.

They managed to fly out of Duesseldorf airport even though the names on their identity documents did not match those on their airline tickets, police said, adding that their identity was only checked against the photos on the papers.

Bashar also turned out to have chalked up a long police record over his less than three years in Germany and should have been expelled months ago.

"The government should beg for forgiveness from Susanna's parents," said the top-selling tabloid Bild.

"The only thing that is worse than the murder of a child is the murder of a child by a criminal who should not have been in our country.

"Crimes like these are explosive for our society because they are the bitter proof that this country does not have sufficient control over who is residing within our borders."
"That's how integration usually works -- there are hundreds and thousands of examples in Germany. But now also three dead girls," it added in an editorial called "Poison for society."