Aylan Kurdi (Photo : Facebook)
The German police is investigating a 26-year-old Berlin man who allegedly defamed the memory of a dead person and even incited hatred after he celebrated on Facebook the drowning of the three-year-old Aylan Kurdi.
Police seized a computer and two phones from the house of the Berlin resident which they searched to find evidence of what he posted on Facebook, reports Newser. Valeska Jakubowski, spokeswoman of Berlin Police, said the man could be jailed for three years if convicted.
The man posted a photo of Aylan, who drowned off the coast of Turkey earlier this week along with his two family members, and wrote "we are not mourning but celebrating it." His post reflects the anti-refugee sentiment across Europe.
Besides Aylan, his brother 5-year-old Galip and mother Reham also perished while attempting to escape the harsh conditions in Turkey after they left Syria which was hit by the civil war that started in 2011. Only Abdullah, a Syrian-Kurdish barber and head of the family survived the tragedy. The family was aboard a boat that was supposed to last only 30 minutes across four kilometers.
When the war broke, the family was living in Damascus. They fled to Aleppo and then to Kobani. In 2014, they crossed into Turkey where Abdullah found it difficult to support his family. He paid 4,000 euro for the journey for four seats, thinking they would ride on a motor boat which turned out to be a rubber raft, reports Quartz. It turned out that the life jackets they were given were fakes.
The Turkish smuggler said they would ride on a yacht. They left for Kos, a Greek island, from Bodrum peninsula at 3 a.m. even if the waves were high and the winds strong. While they were away from the Turkish boat and high waves were pummeling the rubber raft, the Turkish smuggler jumped off the raft and fled. Soon, a big wave hit the raft which overturned.
Abdullah recalls they held his wife and two boys while holding on to the raft's edge for an hour. When one of the children died, he let go to save the remaining son but the other kid eventually also died. He tried to save his wife, but she too was gone, Abdullah told Radio Rozana.
