Germany expels Russian diplomats over execution-style killing in Berlin park
- Russia ordered 2019 killing of former Chechen militant in Berlin park, German court finds
- Two diplomats being expelled from Germany are linked to Russian intelligence agencies, sources say
Germany announced it is expelling two Russian diplomats after a German court concluded that Moscow was behind the killing of a Chechen man in Berlin two years ago.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday called the state-ordered killing a “grave breach of German law and the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany”. Russia’s ambassador in Berlin was summoned to discuss the court’s finding and informed of the diplomats’ expulsion, she said.
The 2019 brazen daylight killing of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity, sparked outrage in Berlin and prompted the German government to expel two other Russian diplomats at the time – a move Russia swiftly reciprocated.
The two diplomats being expelled now are linked to Russian intelligence agencies, according to Associated Press sources.
Judges at Berlin’s regional court on Wednesday convicted 56-year-old Vadim Krasikov of the killing, but said he had acted on the orders of Russian federal authorities, who provided him with a false identity, a fake passport and the resources to carry out the hit near Berlin’s Kleiner Tiergarten park on August 23, 2019.
“The central government of the Russian Federation was the author of this crime,” presiding judge Olaf Arnoldi said, labelling the killing “state terrorism”.