Owner gifts kebab shop to employees after German attack

BERLIN: The owner of a kebab shop targeted in a deadly far-right attack in the German city of Halle last month has gifted the eatery to the two brothers who were working there during the shooting.

Siblings Ismet and Rifat Tekin received a framed letter transferring the ownership of the Kiez-Doener to them in a ceremony on Saturday as the restaurant reopened for the first time since the October 9 attack.

“I wish my successors much strength in processing the terrible events of October 9, 2019 and hope they have many customers of different cultures and religions,” their former boss Izzet Cagac wrote in the letter, which was accompanied by a key.

A 20-year-old customer was shot dead when a gunman opened fire on the kebab shop after earlier trying and failing to storm a synagogue. He also killed a female passer-by.

The assailant, a suspected neo-Nazi, was arrested and later admitted that the attack was motivated by anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism, fuelling concerns about an increasingly violent far-right scene in Germany.

At the reopened kebab shop, a colourful memorial wall paid tribute to the victims and all customers could eat for free over the weekend, local media reported.

Der Spiegel weekly praised Cagac’s gift as an act of hope.

“In a society increasingly plagued by brutality and hatred, this gesture of solidarity and humanity offers a small ray of light,” it wrote.

Reiner Haseloff, the premier of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, also attended the fast-food outlet’s reopening, emphasising the importance of a new beginning.

Haseloff was also the store’s first customer at 10 A.M. local time , eating a kebab with former owner Cagac to fulfil a promise he made following the shooting.