Murder of Mia Valentin

The Murder of Mia Valentin was a fatal stabbing on 27 December 2017 in the town of Kandel in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. An Afghan asylum seeker, who had been denied refugee status, was charged with the murder of his 15-year-old German former girlfriend, allegedly after she ended the relationship. The case was reported in the national and international press and sparked a political debate about the German refugee policies, especially how to deal with underage unaccompanied refugees.

Incident
Mia Valentin was murdered on 27 December 2017 in a drugstore in the town of Kandel. The murderer, Abdul Dawodzai, a former refugee claimant from Afghanistan, had been placed in the same class as Valentin. Dawoodzai and Valentin had had a relationship for several months. In the beginning of December 2017, after she had ended the relationship, he allegedly began to threaten Valentin. She and her parents made complaints to the police in mid-December. On the morning of 27 December 2017, police officers had visited the perpetrator. Later that day, he stabbed Valentin after he followed her into the store, using a 20 cm knife. She died shortly afterwards in hospital. The suspect allegedly bought the knife at the same store just before he attacked her.

On 15 December 2017, the victim's parents had filed a criminal complaint, alleging that the suspect had slandered and threatened their daughter.

Perpetrator
The perpetrator was named as Abdul Mobin Dawodzai from Afghanistan. He came to Germany in April 2016 and initially resided in Frankfurt, later in a center for young refugees in Germersheim. His asylum claim was rejected in February 2017, but he was not deported. The parents of the victim strongly doubted that he was only 15 years old, so an investigation was launched to determine his true age. The perpetrator had been known to the police for a serious bodily injury crime committed in school.

Legal proceedings
The suspect was charged with murder, and underwent a medical examination in response to allegations that he misstated his age. The age assessment was carried out by evaluating X-rays of hand, clavicle and dentition of the suspect. The findings of the examination were presented by the State's attorney in February 2018. These findings concluded that the suspect was at least 17 years and six months old, but most likely around 20.

He was tried as a minor. Dawodzai's lawyer denied he was older than 20. The prosecution called for a 10 year sentence while the defense attorney asked for a 7.5 year sentence.

On 3 September 2018, Dawodzai was sentenced to 8 years and 6 months in prison for murder of Valentin. Maximilian Ender, Dawodzai's lawyer said to reporters that he thought the court decision was correct, and that his client had "accepted" the verdict. Locals protested outside the court calling the sentence of 8.5 years for murder too short.

Political debate
The murder reignited German public debate over refugee policy, in particular, debate over abuse of refugee policy by adult men claiming to be child refugees.

Several politicians of FDP, CDU, CSU, AfD, SPD and also Green parties demanded a better control of young unaccompanied refugees as a consequence of the case. The authorities of Rhineland-Palatinate began an investigation to determine consequences. Julia Klöckner (CDU) offered condolences to the parents of Mia Valentin and demanded an investigation, as did Eva Högl (SPD). Stephan Mayer (CSU) demanded a hardened course against underage offenders. Alexander Gauland (AfD) stated that the German policies of open borders were responsible for the case. Konstantin von Notz (The Greens) demanded a better prevention and a closer look to the underage unaccompanied refugees. The Interior Minister of Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann (CSU) demanded an age test for all underage refugees who were not clearly recognizable as children. FDP chairman Christian Lindner suggested faster deportation of underage criminal asylum seekers.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Minister President of Saarland spoke out in favor of obligatory age tests of young refugees, as did the Deutscher Städte- und Gemeindebund. Official investigations in some German states showed, that at least 30 to 50 percent of the age records of alleged underage refugees are wrong.

Unlike other German TV news broadcasters, news magazine Tagesschau did not report the case at first, later explaining that it does not normally report on domestic crime, especially where children are involved. After criticism in social media, the paper published a report.

Protests
Two months after the attack there were demonstrations in the town, involving over a thousand people. The local authorities claimed that most of the anti-immigration demonstrators were not from Kandel and that the town was being used as a "platform" by right-wingers. A separate group simultaneously demonstrated against racism.

Funeral candles with pictures of Mia Valentin along with photos of Mireille B murdered 2018 in Flensburg and Maria Ladenburger murdered in 2016 in Freiburg were placed by anti-Islamic protesters outside chancellor Angela Merkel's office in Stralsund.

Kandel Is Everywhere
Following Mia's murder, an initiative entitled "Kandel Is Everywhere" took root in Germany. It has held protests, created Stolpersteine decrying the murders of Germans by foreigners, and produced a poster that went viral that includes Mia and Susanna Feldmann, under the heading “Merkel’s Stolpersteine.” On 14 April 2018, around 250 persons gathered at the Ballhausplatz in Vienna to commemorate the victim and to call for restrictions on immigration.

Suicide
On 10 October 2019, it was announced that Abdul D. had been found dead in his cell, of apparent suicide. The police department of Rheinpfalz commented: "At the moment, there are no indications of outside influence. Suicidal intentions were not recognizable according to the prison management."

Trial and sentence
Because of the age of the accused, the case was heard privately in a juvenile court. Anti-immigration demonstrators assembled in the streets of Kandel in September 2018 to await the announcement of the verdict, with counter-protests from locals. When the sentence of 8 years in prison for the convicted murderer was announced, Deutsche Welle noted that the social media accounts of Alternative for Germany politicians "lit up" with criticism of the brevity of the sentence, while members of the governing Social Democratic Party were silent. A political consultant said that #Kandel had enabled the right wing to "take a singular, exceptional event and "abstract" it into a national problem".

Documentary The Girl and the Refugee
The documentary The Girl and the Refugee, which is Episode 5 of the series What Moves Germany, was shown on 4 June 2018 on Das Erste, a public television channel in Germany. The documentary is about the murder of Mia Valentin, and about the attempted murder by stabbing of a 17-year-old girl by another Afghan refugee in Darmstadt five days earlier. Looking for answers, the filmmakers travel to Afghanistan where they are told that a woman who separates from her man "must be killed." The documentary is an hr-SWR co-production, directed by Christian Gropper and Kai Diezemann.