Police arrested a German of Afghan origin in the stabbing of a rabbi in Frankfurt last week, prosecutors said Friday.
A photo provided by police shows the letters "SS" (standing for Schutzstaffel, the security and paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party) smeared on a gravestone at a Jewish cemetery in Czestochowa, Poland.
Photo: AP
The 22-year-old man was arrested Thursday night and admitted to stabbing the rabbi, Zalman Gurevitch, Frankfurt prosecutors said in a statement. The man is being investigated on suspicion of attempted manslaughter and dangerous bodily harm.
Police have said an anti-Semitic insult preceded the stabbing Sept. 7. Gurevitch has been recovering in a hospital.
The attack prompted concern and condemnation from local politicians and Jewish groups.
Prosecutors said they tracked down the suspect, who they did not name, after being tipped off to an Internet forum that contained details of the incident.
The suspect, a Frankfurt-born German citizen whose parents come from Afghanistan, says that "there was an exchange of words which ended in a physical confrontation," prosecutors said.
He said that he "felt physically inferior to the rabbi and so reached for his knife," but denied any intention to kill him, they added.
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