Far-right attack ruled out in German drowning death

DRESDEN, Germany -- Prosecutors investigating the death of a six-year-old German-Iraqi boy have released their only suspects and said they no longer suspect that a far-right attack was to blame for his death.

The mystery of the child death's deepened as German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, under pressure to react after a spate of far-right violence, was due to meet the boy's mother in what he called a show of solidarity.

"In the current stage of the investigation a far-right motivation is no longer suspected," prosecutor Hans Strobl told reporters in the eastern city of Dresden.

Authorities last week detained two men and a woman suspected of drugging and drowning Joseph Abdulla in a crowded East German swimming pool in 1997 because they hated foreigners. Officials now believe the main witnesses to the incident were not credible.

"The investigation...has concluded that grounds for suspicion against the three suspects cannot be supported," prosecutors in Dresden said in a statement.

"In particular, questioning of the chief witness established that the alibi of one of the suspects could not be refuted," they added.

"Questioning of further witnesses cast overall doubt on the credibility of the witnesses."

They said the investigation in the small town of Sebnitz near the Czech border would continue.

Local authorities closed the case in 1998 after calling it an accidental drowning, but new witnesses have since come forward to say a group of skinheads drugged Abdulla and then held him under water while other bathers watched.

As police continued efforts to sort out the details of the three-year-old case, Schroeder said he planned to meet the boy's mother, Renate Kantelberg-Abdulla, in a show of solidarity.

"She has a right for one to listen to her and as much as possible, also help her," he said. "This has nothing to do with interference in the case."

On Sunday Schroeder, who has spoken out against a rise in far-right violence this year, reacted angrily to reports of a possible far-right background to the death.

"Like any law-abiding citizen, I am appalled by the thought that this boy may have been murdered by right-wing extremists," Schroeder said.

"If this is really the case, it will have been one of the most hideous crimes in Germany for a long time."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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