German Prosecutors Investigated Berlin Truck Attack Suspect for Fraud in April

In April, the district attorney's office of the city of Duisburg in North Rhine-Westphalia opened a preliminary investigation into the possibility that Tunisian national Anis Amri, the suspect in the Berlin truck attack on Christmas market, had been fraudulently receiving social benefits in 2015, according to local media.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — German prosecutors opened a preliminary fraud investigation into the actions of the suspect in the Berlin truck attack on Christmas market, Tunisian national Anis Amri, half a year before the tragedy, German media reported on Thursday.

In April, the district attorney's office of the city of Duisburg in North Rhine-Westphalia opened a preliminary investigation into the possibility that Amri had been fraudulently receiving social benefits in 2015, Der Spiegel magazine reported.

According to the magazine, Berlin's health and welfare agency, referred to Amri, who in 2015 physically assaulted the agency's guard, as Ahmad Zaghoul and closed the investigation against him as he was nowhere to be found.

The security forces reportedly asked the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees not to disclose to Amri that the authorities were aware of his real name, to lull him into a false sense of security, and he was granted a temporary residence permit under the name of Ahmed Almasri.

On December 19, a truck drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the center of Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring over 40 others.

Amri, 24-year-old asylum seeker from Tunisia, traveled from Germany through France after the attack, heading for Italy. On December 23, Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti announced that Anis Amri had been killed in a shootout with police in Milan.