NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) does not see any reason for further personnel consequences at this time and is counting on a complete clarification of the matter. The public prosecutor’s office and Cologne police have investigated the case, according to Reul. “So far everything is looking like a disastrous misunderstanding. Nothing is being hushed up; on the contrary, we are doing everything we can to completely resolve the case. We owe this to the public and also to Professor Melamed,” said Reul. Melamed, who had given a lecture as a visiting professor at the University of Bonn, spoke out at the weekend. He expressed his indignation at the police’s statement of events and accused them of spreading “unfounded lies.” He did not fight back during the police operation as officers stated. “I was unable to move and could not breathe,” Melamed explained. The four police came at him from two sides.

He wrote of a “few dozen punches,” that he received. One witness, who does not want to be named, described the incident to the GA as having been “extremely brutal”. However, he had observed, from around 15 metres away, that only one of the police officers jumped on the professor and brought him to the ground as he was running after the fleeing attacker. The witness described the policeman’s rapid arm movements and a “downward struggle” for several seconds but did not notice blows to the face from that distance. The other three policemen stood around. He could not tell whether the professor had fought back.

Melamed describes how he had to make a statement twice after the incident. On first contact, they had tried to talk him out of making a complaint about the police in the operation. He was only treated more “politely” during a second round of questioning. According to Scholten, two interrogations, first in the police station and then a more detailed interview at police headquarters, is not unusual procedure. For reasons of neutrality, Cologne police are investigating the officers on suspicion of assault.

Bonn’s police president Ursula Brohl-Sowa had met Melamed on early Thursday morning, the day after the attack, to personally apologise before his flight to Baltimore. The qualified philosopher has now speculated that she only apologised because he is “a professor and not an underdog.”

In the meantime, the Bonn public prosecutor’s office is dealing with the cases. Official spokesman Sebastian Buß said the public prosecutors’ office is investigating the offences of assault, using abusive language and incitement to hatred against the 20-year-old, who is said to have insulted and attacked the American and knocked the kippah off his head. He was arrested by police after the mix-up but released again the next day. Whether the policemen are guilty of assault through their conduct will be examined in a second procedure.

A total of four police officers were ordered to the Hofgarten on Wednesday afternoon. When they arrived, they confused the culprit and victim and knocked down the Jewish professor. According to the police’s description of events, one officer hit him in the face because he defended himself. Udo Schott, chairman of the Bonn police union members, said on Monday: “This is now the time for the investigators. There are several contradictions that now need to be clarified.” When asked why only young officers were on duty, he said it was “preferable” when an experienced policeman was always present but there was no regulation to this effect. The Bonn CDU state parliament member Christos Katzidis also called for a “calm, objective explanation”. Katzidis last worked as the head of personnel, education and further training for the police.

The public prosecutor’s office and the police are looking for witnesses so they can better reconstruct the incident and are asking anyone who saw the incident at around 2.20pm on Wednesday afternoon to call them on 0228 150

(Original text: Philipp Königs / Translation: kc)