Watan-The German police in Hamburg have denied the occurrence of a horrific murder of a Jordanian student named Mohammed Osama Barakat, despite widespread attention and reports indicating otherwise. The Jordanian government has stated that it is closely monitoring the developments of the case.
Social media platforms buzzed with unconfirmed reports about the killing of the Jordanian student in Germany, Mohammed Osama Barakat, allegedly shot twice in the head. He had gained prominence as an activist against Israeli occupation and had participated in a widespread campaign expressing solidarity with Gaza, which was facing an Israeli war at the time.
Mohammed Osama Barakat, 21 years old, was reported to have been lured by fellow students at the university on Tuesday evening, where one of them fired two shots at his head. This act was attributed to his solidarity posts with Gaza on his Facebook page, as confirmed by several Jordanians on the platform.
The German police informed Barakat’s family in Jordan about his death without providing any details about the murder, attempting to suppress information about the crime and conceal the motives. Local newspapers were reportedly coerced into not reporting anything about the tragedy.
مقتل الطالب الأردني محمد أسامة بركات في ألمانيا على أيدي مجموعة من الطلاب في مدينة هامبورغ بسبب دعمه لغزة والشرطة تنفي وجود جريمة قتل!
الشاب محمد بركات (21 عاما) من بلدة عنتبا محافظة طولكرم تعيش أسرته في الأردن كان يدرس تخصص تكنولوجيا المعلومات في مدينة هامبوغ وكان يعرف بتفوقه… pic.twitter.com/200imcIE7F— شؤون إسلامية (@Shuounislamiya) December 24, 2023
Jordanian official statement
Sufian Al-Qudah, the Director of Operations and Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate Affairs of Jordan, commented on the crime on the Ex platform, stating that “the ministry is following the incident of the death of the Jordanian citizen and student, Mohammed Osama Barakat, in the German city of Hamburg.”
The Jordanian official, Sufian Al-Qudah, mentioned that the Directorate of Operations and Consular Affairs and the Jordanian Embassy in Berlin “are coordinating with the German authorities to investigate this unfortunate incident, to understand its developments, which have not concluded yet.”
Furthermore, “official procedures related to transporting the body to Jordan have begun, in coordination with the deceased’s family,” according to Al-Qudah.
قال مدير مدير مديرية العمليات والشؤون القنصلية في #وزارة_الخارجية_وشؤون_المغتربين السفير د.سفيان القضاة بأن الوزارة تتابع حادثة وفاة مواطن أردني في مدينة #هامبورغ الألمانية. كما أكد بأن لا ضحايا أردنيين جراء الهجوم المسلح الذي وقع في جامعة في العاصمة التشيكية #براغ، يوم الخميس. pic.twitter.com/vRjr3vPt5O
— وزارة الخارجية وشؤون المغتربين الأردنية (@ForeignMinistry) December 23, 2023
Germany denies any crime
The official Twitter account of the German police in Hamburg issued a tweet on the Ex platform, denying the cause of the incident, stating: “There is currently a circulating report on social media indicating the killing of a Jordanian student in Hamburg… we have no knowledge of this fact, and there are no indications of a murder that can be linked to this matter.” The account continued: “We currently assume that this news is fake, so we ask you not to circulate it.”
Aktuell kursiert in den sozialen Medien eine Meldung, wonach ein jordanischer Student in #Hamburg ermordet worden sein soll. Uns ist weder dieser Sachverhalt bekannt, noch gibt es Hinweise auf ein Tötungsdelikt, welches hiermit in Zusammenhang gebracht werden kann. pic.twitter.com/NucxjsuvII
— Polizei Hamburg (@PolizeiHamburg) December 23, 2023
The deceased was active in recent weeks on social media and at his university, sharing and participating in solidarity posts and events about Gaza and the brutal Israeli war against the people of the Gaza Strip.
According to information circulated on social media, Barakat was active among his university peers and was interested in revealing the truth about what was happening in Gaza.