Berlin Angry Over Syrian Human Trafficker’s Release

German news magazine Spiegel reported on Saturday that the German government was furious that Lebanon had released a Syrian man, who had smuggled thousands of Kurds in a ship last year and brought them to Germany. The man, who was arrested in Lebanon in April this year on a German arrest warrant, was released without explanation in October, even though the human trafficker had confessed to his crime in prison, the magazine said. The Syrian national had admitted to organizing two of the biggest human trafficking operations in the Mediterranean. The German Foreign Ministry has lodged an official complaint with Syria against the release of the man. German Interior Minister Otto Schily wrote in a letter to his counterpart in Beirut that he "was shocked" that the mastermind behind the smuggling operations had been let off due to "an incomprehensible decision of a military judge."