The 14-year-old Muslim had told authorities that the driver in Friedrichshagen had refused to leave the tram stop, instead announcing over the loudspeaker that he would not drive anyone wearing a headscarf.
A police report was filed about the incident, in which video footage showed a girl with a headscarf on the tram on Wednesday. Because the video footage is not accompanied by sound, the Muslim teenager probably thought she could get away with only her version of events. Sound is generally not recorded by video surveillance, so that the “anti-Muslim” announcement could not to be heard.
But a witness has appeared, who was also on the tram when the driver asked the 14-year-old to get out. The reason was not the headscarf, as the 14-year-old had maintained, but the fact that she was eating a kebab in the tram, which is strictly prohibited.
The Berlin Transport Company (BVG) confirmed to the Berliner Morgenpost that after reviewing video footage, they believe that the driver had asked her to leave the tram because she was eating a Döner kebab, something which is against their regulations.
“On the video you can see two girls getting onto the tram and then unpacking their Döner kebabs; they look up at the loudspeaker, as the driver clearly announces that they should not be eating kebabs on the tram,” a BVG spokesperson Petra Reetz explained.
According to the witness’ account, the girl ignored the warning, “after which the driver asked the girl in the white headscarf to leave the tram and eat outside. That’s all there was to it.”
The driver says he is “aghast” at what how the incident is being exploited.
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